The Return of an Ancient, Definitely Magical Evil
Twilight hadn’t moved in the last minute, still rooted to the spot where she had watched Sunset vanish into thin air. She still didn’t believe in magic, of course - that was a laughable notion easily disproved by any competent scientist - but no matter how hard she tried to think she couldn’t come up with an explanation for anything that had just happened.
Sentient shadow monster? Nope.
Teleportation? Maybe if technology was more advanced, but no.
School turning into a castle? That was the most ridiculous out of all of them, and the thing that had caused Twilight to pinch herself in the arm to make sure she was awake. Several times.
Surprisingly, Fluttershy was the one to break the silence.
“We have to save her,” she said, though not without a tremor in her voice. “A-and we have to beat Nightmare t-too.”
Rainbow blinked, then slung her arm around the taller girl’s shoulders and pulled her down slightly. “Hell yeah! Shy’s right - and ‘sides, I wanna pay those assholes back for throwin’ me around like that!”
“This can’t be Celeste’s fault,” Twilight snapped, and pinched herself in the arm again. “Whatever Nightmare is, it’s what we should be fighting.”
“Ugh, fine. Asshole, singular. Whatever.”
Frowning, Applejack rubbed the back of her head and let out a long breath. “Ah can’t say I oppose the idea of savin’ Sunset, but goin’ into the school-turned-castle? It’ll be mighty dangerous...”
“We don’t even know what kinds of awful creatures could be waiting for us!” Rarity added. Her voice raised a few notes as she almost shrieked, “So many horrible things!”
“Well, shouldn’t this be up to Twilight?” Pinkie piped up. When the others turned to look at her she explained, “Since she and Sunset totally have this thing and all-”
At that Twilight’s cheeks burst into flames and she started to choke on nothing.
“-and Celeste is like, totally a mother figure to her, amiright?” She spread her arms and offered up an awkward half-grin. “Does that make sense?”
“No,” Rainbow muttered under her breath, but stopped talking nonetheless. All eyes shifted to Twilight - a slightly terrified, still-convinced-she-was-dreaming Twilight - who was still staring off into space. She had stopped coughing, at least. There was a minute of relative silence under the starless sky before her lips parted and she let out a shaky breath.
“...Yeah.”
Pinkie blinked. “That’s not an answer, silly.”
“Yeah, as in, we need to get in there and save Sunset. Now.”
Two groans came from behind her along with two whoops of excitement and a singular whimper. Twilight didn’t bother to turn to see who had made what sound, since if she took her eyes off of the castle she was terrified she wouldn’t be able to look back at it.
Terrified. That was an odd word to describe what she was feeling. Fear? No, not completely. There was something else - something in her chest that was pulling her towards that monster, Nightmare. What was it?
“Oh.” A soft voice sounded beside her, and Rarity gently reached out and placed one slender hand on her shoulder. Somehow it helped to ease the storm billowing in Twilight’s mind. “I know that look - my little sister wears it almost constantly.”
“I don’t- I don’t know what I’m feeling. I’m so scared, and angry, and honestly I think I’m going to pass out-”
“Twilight. Look at me, darling.”
Slowly Twilight let her gaze drag over the castle and towards Rarity’s eyes, something snapping into focus as soon as the terrifying building was out of her sights. She focused on Rarity’s comforting smile and took a deep, long breath in.
After the exhale she blurted out, “I think- I think it’s doubt.”
And to that Rarity could only let her smile take on a sadder tone, her hand squeezing tighter. “Yes,” she replied. “But don’t we all?”
---
However powerful Nightmare was, even she could not repair the damage that had been done to the front of the school. However, the inside had changed completely. As the six girls moved forwards they stepped not into the front foyer of Kanterlot High School, but a spacious hall with an elegant staircase leading upwards at the end.
Applejack shuddered as the chandelier above them suddenly lit with blue flames and ran her hands up and down her arms. “This place sure don’t scream ‘welcome’ or anythin’ of that sort.” She jogged forwards to the foot of the stairs and made a face. “Yeargh.”
“Yeah, it’s fucking creepy.” Rainbow squeezed Fluttershy’s hand tight, though if it was to comfort herself or the other girl was unclear. “How’re we gonna know where Sunset is?”
As if on cue a wall of blue smoke roared to life behind them, effectively sealing off the entrance. Pinkie let out a shriek as it grazed her elbow and stumbled backwards, eyes wide.
“Ow!”
Twilight felt a stab of fear as she saw crimson blossoming through Pinkie’s sleeve and raised her hand. It was shaking, but she managed to close it into a fist.“Stick together! We don’t know what Nightmare is going to do-”
Five ink-black tendrils shot out from the smoke at the girls, each picking a different target. Applejack could only watch in horror as her friends were dragged back down the hall to a different spot in the room with the darkness wrapped securely over their eyes.
“Girls!” Applejack took a step of off the staircase only for the ground to shake underneath her boot. “W-whoa. Ah don’t-” She glanced around frantically and cupped her hands around her mouth to shout, “What do ah do?!”
“Stay calm!” Twilight shouted back. She was the farthest one away, held fast against the wall. “Look around you - what’s going on in your surroundings?”
“Um, ah-” Blinking, Applejack licked her lips nervously. “All y’all are separated, you’re at different points in the room. The darkness is coverin’ your eyes or something. And the floor…” She glanced down and noticed for the first time a tile-like pattern with different symbols on them. “...it looks like something out of an Indiana Jones movie or something. Fancy symbols and stuff.”
“Traps!” Rainbow shouted. “They gotta be traps!”
“What kind of traps?!” Rarity shrieked.
“Heck if I know, man!”
“Um, girls?”
“This is too much!” Plowing right over top of Fluttershy’s question, Rarity began struggling against her bonds. “What if it’s snakes? Or rats? Or poison gas?!”
“Why are you worrying about traps when I’m the one who already got hurt?” Pinkie whined. “I can’t feel my elbow!”
“Girls?”
Twilight made a face and shouted, “You probably dislocated it! Once you’re free I can help you set it back into place!”
“Ouch, dude!” Rainbow crowed. “That’s gonna hurt like hell; I speak from experience.”
“Aw. That’s no fun.”
“What if it’s a poisonous snake-rat hybrid out to kill us all?!”
“Can someone calm Rarity down? Ah think there’s a pattern to the floor tiles but it’s really hard to think when she’s screechin’ like that-”
“GIRLS!”
The room fell silent. Everyone turned to look at Fluttershy, or more accurately, turned in the direction her voice came from. Now speaking at her normal half-whisper, she managed to get out, “Um, I can move.”
Applejack blinked, finally noticing that Fluttershy was the only one of the group unrestrained. The darkness was still securely covering her eyes, however, but her arms and legs were free. “Okay, that’s good, ah think.” She took a look at the tiles around her feet and said slowly, “Try taking half a step forwards.”
“O-okay.”
Slowly, Fluttershy inched forwards from her blank tile to the one marked with a triangle. For a second nothing happened. Then there was a loud, echoing click.
“Back Fluttershy! Move back!”
It was a good thing Fluttershy was so frightened, as she immediately followed Applejack’s instructions. A second later a black spike shot up from the floor in all its pointy and deadly glory.
Applejack swallowed loudly. “Dear Lord.”
“What’s goin’ on?” Rainbow called out. “Was it a trap? What kind?”
“Um… not a trap. Just… just playing it safe. Yeah.” Mentally she crossed the triangle tile off of her list of ‘safe’ tiles. And since the one she had stepped on that wobbled was a square, she could take that one off to, which left the circle, star, and diamond.
Applejack took in another breath. She could do this. “Okay, Rarity, I need you to step on the tile to your left, but stay where you are. Rainbow, Pinkie, you two press the ones in front of you.”
“Got it!”
Three loud clicks rang throughout the room and Applejack braced herself for more spikes of death. As she did the tile beside Rarity vanished completely, while the one in front of Pinkie burst into flames.
Rainbow’s, however, did nothing.
“Hey, did it just get warmer in here?” Pinkie asked.
Applejack wisely decided not to answer. Instead she called out, “Ah think ah figured it out. We gotta stick on the star tiles, those are the safe ones. ‘Shy, ah’m gonna guide you towards the stairs, alright? Just follow my lead.”
Fluttershy nodded frantically. “Okay. I will.”
“Good. Now, go two steps to the left and rotate right…”
With a bit of coaxing and a single scare where Fluttershy accidentally activated another fire tile, Applejack managed to lead her over to the staircase. As soon as her shoe touched the first stair the bindings around Rarity vanished with a pop.
“Great,” Applejack muttered, but kept up a brave face. “Four to go.”
And so they carried on their strange game, saving Rarity, then Rainbow, then Pinkie, until Twilight was the only blindfolded girl left on the tiled floor. Sweating, Applejack scanned the ground and said, “Twilight, two steps forwards.”
A pause. Twilight didn’t move.
“Two steps, Twi. Don’t worry, it’s safe.”
Twilight bit her lip, but shuffled forwards anyways. “How far is it?”
“Uh…” Applejack glanced at the long hall and instead answered,“Just keep following my lead.”
And she did, for the most part. Twilight got about halfway to the stairs when the ground began to rumble. Then, starting at the door, the tiles began to drop in rows into a void of darkness below.
“Shoot!”
Twilight flinched. “Wh-what’s wrong? I can feel the ground moving; is it supposed to do that? How much farther, Applejack?”
“Don’t worry about the distance. Ah just need you to trust me, okay? Now, one step left and one step forwards.”
Even with the threat of the vanishing floor, Applejack guided Twilight as best she could. When she was five tiles away, however, Applejack felt her heart drop.
From where Twilight was, there were no star tiles she could reach.
“Applejack?” Twilight had noticed her hesitation and was wringing her hands together in panic. “What’s wrong.”
“Ah-” Applejack glanced around furiously, trying to see if she could loop back around to another path - but no, the tiles were falling too fast for that. What if she ran over the traps? That’d be dangerous, but-”
“Applejack!” Twilight’s voice was frantic now, shrill and scared. “Help me!”
“Aw, sugar.” Swearing under her breath, Applejack wiped the sweat off her brow and yelled, “You gotta jump, Twi!”
“Wh-what?!”
“There ain’t any safe tiles left - you gotta jump over the rest.”
“I can’t do that! That’s insane, practically impossible for someone of my physical ability-”
“Twilight!” Applejack was shouting over her protests before she could stop herself, her concern overriding her politeness in an instant. “Ah’m countin’ to three, and on three you’re going to jump.”
Twilight flinched and crossed her arms over herself. “But-!”
“Trust me, Twilight. You’ll be fine.”
There were no rows left behind Twilight, the last one dropping into the abyss. As the one beneath her started to wobble, she took a deep breath and backed up her heels to the edge of her tile.
“One…”
“Applejack, I-”
“Two…”
“Please, don’t make me-”
“Three!”
Gathering what was left of her courage Twilight took a step forwards and pushed off with all her might. She couldn’t see the ground, or how high she’d gone, or where she was going to land. The only things she knew were that she had jumped in the direction Applejack’s voice was coming from, and that she had chosen to trust her.
I really don’t want to die!
Twilight shrieked as she hurtled through the air, only to slam into someone and send them both tumbling back onto the staircase. As soon as she touched the floor the blindfolds all vanished, letting the other five see the room once again.
Rainbow took a look at the lack of floor and raised an eyebrow. “No traps, my ass.” Beside her Rarity’s eyes widened and she choked out a few strangled syllables.
“Didn’t wanna scare Rares,” Applejack muttered. She propped herself up with her free arm and uncurled her arm from around Twilight’s waist. “You good?”
“I, um-” Twilight rolled off of Applejack onto her back and watched as the last of the floor fell away. “...Yeah. Thanks for catching me. You really were telling the truth, I guess.”
“T’weren’t nothin’. Ah don’t make it a habit to tell untruths.”
“Except that there weren’t any traps,” Rainbow muttered under her breath.
Before Applejack could respond a burst of light shone from her wrist, looping around in an elegant cursive before vanishing back into the air. Squinting, she looked at the word written in gold and read, “Integrity. Now what in the heck does that mean?”
“Magic,” Pinkie breathed.
“Anything else,” Twilight growled.
“Don’t care!” Rainbow yelled. She grabbed Fluttershy’s hand again and declared, “We gotta keep moving - Sunset’s a sacrifice, remember? And there’s no way I’m gonna let her die before Twilight gets to make out with her or whatever.”
Twilight went beet red and buried her face in her hands. “That’s not why we’re saving her at all!”
“Whatever, let’s just move it. Follow me!”
---
Though Rainbow tried to barge ahead to the next floor, Fluttershy somehow got her to wait a bit while Twilight set Pinkie’s elbow back. Or, tried to at least. As she did Pinkie suddenly proclaimed that she didn’t hurt anymore, and no matter how hard Twilight tried she couldn’t find a dislocation or break anywhere. Her cut had even scabbed over unnaturally fast.
Pinkie called it magic. Twilight rolled her eyes and changed the subject to something she actually believed in.
So, the group ascended the stairs to yet another hallway, with yet another set of stairs. This time, the floor was carpeted, with suits of medieval armor lining the sides of the walls that Rarity immediately shied away from.
“They’re going to come to life, I just know it,” she hissed, and leaned closer to Twilight for support. Twilight didn’t know why - she would be pretty much useless in a fight. Maybe Rarity wanted to use her as a meat shield.
Halfway down the hall a wave of pain washed against her temples, like a migraine, and she winced. “Ow.”
Fluttershy tilted her head to the side. “What’s wrong?”
“Headache,” Twilight muttered. “It’s probably the stress. And with my luck it’ll only get worse since I know Nightmare’s going to make us face something on every floor. It’s so predictable. I mean, I’m pretty sure Rarity’s right about the armor-”
Again a wall of smoke roared up behind them, covering the exit. This time Pinkie stuck her tongue out at it and pointed obviously to her elbow.
“Sword fight time! Yes!” Rainbow got into a battle stance and waved her arms around her head. “C’mon, metal-faces! Do your worst!”
Silence. Nothing in the hall moved that wasn’t supposed to be moving in the first place. Frowning, Rainbow lowered her arms and grumbled, “Well that’s lame-”
And then a gigantic manticore burst through the ceiling with an almighty roar.
“Not lame! Not lame!”
“I hate my life!” Twilight yelled before bolting away as fast as she could, Fluttershy and Rainbow hot on her heels.
Surprisingly, it was Rarity who leaped into action, darting forwards and leaping to kick it across the face with her heels. She dodged one paw and rolled away with a yelp, then shrieked as a wave of spittle splashed down around her as the creature roared.
“Ew!” She stumbled back without the bravado she’d shown a second ago and screeched, “Applejack, do something!”
Though terrified herself, Applejack held her hat down with one hand and ran to Rarity. “On it, Rares!” She let out a piercing whistle and, as the manticore turned, leaped up and latched on to its shoulder. “Get along, lil doggie! Ye haw!”
“Your hick side’s showing, AJ!”
“Shut it, Dash!”
Applejack managed to hold on long enough for Rarity to duck behind one of the suits of armor. Eventually the manticore tossed her off, sending her slamming down into the ground beside the rest of the girls.
Winded, Applejack reached for her hat and jammed it over her face. “All yours.”
Rainbow and Pinkie locked eyes, then grinned. “Don’t gotta tell us twice!” Still smirking, Rainbow took off at a breakneck speed with Pinkie right behind her and waved her hands over her head. “Hey! Over here, jackass!”
“Yeah!” Pinkie grabbed an axe off the wall as she ran and held it above her head. “Let’s party!”
Half of Twilight was glad to see that someone else was willing to take action against the beast, but the other half was still reeling from the fact that a mythical creature had appeared in front of them. And even though she didn’t have any halves of herself left to ration, a pang of fear struck part of her as she watched the monster rear back on its hind legs and pump its wings hard enough to blow the armor off of the walls.
They’re going to get themselves killed.
So as Rarity scrambled to find new cover and Applejack picked herself up to get back into the fight, Twilight did the stupidest thing she could think of - because, really, wasn’t that what fighting was all about - and grabbed the closest projectile she could.
As the manticore leaped to snap at Pinkie, a metal helmet bounced off the side of its mane. It was a terribly weak throw and did no damage at all, but achieved its purpose, which instead left Twilight under its angry glare.
In her defense, she wasn’t doing her best thinking while she was somehow split into three halves.
“Yeah. I’m going to run, now.”
And she did.
With three girls fighting, one running, and one trying to take cover behind the carpet, that left Fluttershy. She was still frozen in the middle of the hall, far enough away that she wasn’t in any immediate danger but close enough to see what was happening.
The manticore reared up again and howled with rage as Rainbow clawed her way up onto its back. As it did, Fluttershy noticed something she hadn’t before, and the fear that had seized her body suddenly faded just enough for her heart to let her take action.
First it was one step, which was the hardest, really. But soon she found herself making a slow walk into the fight, until the walk became a jog and the jog became a run and she could hear Rainbow calling her name from somewhere far away and-
-and then she was staring into the eyes of the beast, close enough to see the individual strands of hair on its muzzle. A hot puff of its breath washed over her as it growled, but she stood her ground.
“Fluttershy! Move!” Rainbow scooted forwards to tug on the monster’s ears in panic, but nothing happened. “It’s gonna eat you!”
“Oh, I can’t watch,” Rarity breathed, and covered her eyes.
Fluttershy, however, stayed where she was. With a deep breath she stretched out her hand and placed her palm flat against the bridge of its nose. “U-um,” she tried. “Hi.”
The manticore blinked and narrowed its eyes. In the background Rarity started to hyperventilate.
“I’m, um, sorry that we attacked you out of the blue all of a sudden. And I know you’re angry, but I need you to hold still for a second, okay?” Carefully, Fluttershy reached forwards with her other hand and pressed it forwards into the monster’s mane.
To no one’s surprise it jerked its head out of her hand and howled with enough force to blow Fluttershy’s hair straight back from her head.
“Well that didn’t work-” Pinkie started to say, only to be cut off by the manticore gently headbutting Fluttershy with a contented purr.
“Um.” Twilight blinked. “Is it… nuzzling her?”
“Appears so,” Applejack said, confused. She dropped the sword she’d been holding and tried to look as innocent as she could.
As the monster pulled back, Fluttershy removed her hand from its mane so the others could see a pointed obsidian spike the size of her palm. Suddenly, everything clicked.
“Oh…” Sheepish, Rainbow gave the manticore’s head a pat before sliding down its back to the ground. “Whoops. Sorry, big guy.”
“In our defense, Rarity attacked it first,” Pinkie piped up, as if she hadn’t tried to axe it a few minutes ago.
Rarity glared at her. Pinkie pretended not to notice.
“Fighting isn’t always the answer,” Fluttershy said. She gave the manticore one last pat and stepped back to stare at the spike she’d removed. “Sometimes we just need to be shown a little bit of kindness.”
Suddenly, a beam of light shot out of the crystal and onto her wrist, moving in the same looping way as with Applejack. When it faded it left the word ‘compassion’ in thin cursive along her skin.
Twilight frowned. “That shouldn’t be possible.”
“Who cares?” Grinning, Rainbow crossed her arms and declared, “We beat two trials! That’s gotta put us on like, superhero levels or something.”
“Aside from that,” Applejack said, “it looks like the way’s clear now. Look.”
The girls glanced up to see the manticore’s outline fading slightly. They watched as it let out another contented purr before dissolving into golden light.
Fluttershy sighed and watched as the spike in her hand disappeared as well. “Ah. I guess he wasn’t real, in the end.”
“Obviously,” Twilight muttered, but didn’t dare say it louder. Instead she pointed to the stairs and said, “Let’s go. We’ve probably got four floors to go.” Her headache was back in full force, but she didn’t mention it. No use worrying the others when it was only going to get worse.
“How on earth did you get that?” Rarity asked. She made a face and added, “Oh, drat. And that’s right it means four more trials, too.”
“Yup.” Twilight then pointed to herself, then to Rarity, Pinkie, and Rainbow. “If the pattern holds true, one of us is going to be facing the next one.”
Pinkie and Rainbow exchanged a glance of what could only be called delight, while Rarity crossed her arms and glared at the floor.
“Fine,” she said eventually. “But whatever it is, I’m not going to like it. Not one bit!”
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8351819
...Then why is there an Equestria Girls tag? Also, it's Canterlot, not Kanterlot.
8633894
the tag is cuz this is like an eqg fic. if i put just the human tag in it gets lumped in with all the HiE stories when it falls more into the eqg category. and as for kanterlot think of it as a sort of alternate canterlot high... its to differentiate and im not v creative w names lmfao
Entertaining thus far, but you're sliding into the stations of canon pretty firmly by this point. Novelty is this story's greatest strength, and it's in short supply in this chapter.
Also, Twilight is a terrible scientist, but that's okay, because she's also a terrible scientist on the show. The girl just cannot let go of her preconceived notions, no matter how much evidence to the contrary stares her in the face. Her intellectual arrogance won't be the death of her, but it'll certainly lead to some frustration until she's willing to discard her old theories and formulate new ones that take the new data into account.
Suffice to say, looking forward to more.