Twilights Mane Passion

by Darkonshadows

91

A Slumbergath is a blob like monster made entirely of nightmares that have conjoined together to create a semi corporeal form. A monster like this does not automatically form because of a thousand nightmares; it takes a dark being of great magic to even will one into existence. The true specifications and nature of this monster has it coming from the currently missing crystal empire, it was one of Sombra’s defenses against ponies trying to steal the crystal heart a little over nine hundred ninety nine years ago. Princess Luna was the one that had tossed the dark creature away from the Crystal Empire where it would starve and die in the sunlight; she hadn’t done so without taking some mental scars from fighting the beast which later led to her becoming Nightmare Moon as her nightmares started becoming reality.

The beast had somehow ended up in the catacombs beneath Neighgraba long ago after it’s altercation with the princess of the night. Its main power was to cause fear and nightmares, which was all it had as a weapon. It forced its opponents into submission then slowly devours them alive in its mass; it would feel like acid if you were the one to be engulfed. Its power of causing fear is at its greatest when it is in the process of consuming its victims; the victims usually died purely out of fear alone which was supernaturally powerful in this creature.

Of the three who had ventured into the catacombs, Ballad Din would have been the most likely to survive the beast. While he did fear the beast, he didn’t fear it itself he feared what it could do if left unchecked. He didn’t believe it to be real whatever it was he was forced to be witness to, he start chanting a mantra to keep himself focused on the creature itself.

Tress is the second likely to survive the beast, given she would have figured out what it was doing once it started consuming her. This was only true if she had bothered to enter the catacombs alone, she had not so it wasn't an issue.

Daring Do wouldn’t have been able to shrug it off as easily even after all the things she had seen, she more than the other two had witnessed and survived too many nightmares to shrug them all off as easily. She however did have an uncommon ability in being unnaturally lucky at times and she was the one who was the arbiter to defeating the Slumbergath in a roundabout manner.

Do was a tough pony that had took on many challenges alone. This was one that she had been talked into taking on with friends and had she come alone, she would have been killed by it. Had she not given her two leggings to the others and told them both what the objects did, things might have been left up to a pony she didn’t like to save them. She didn’t like thieves even if she herself counted as one and only because she was stuck stopping apocalyptic nightmares from overtaking the world. Those were the nightmares currently being forced down her throat leaving her paralyzed; not that she had experienced too many horrors already in being strapped into numerous death traps that would kill a lesser pony.

Tress was stuck in her nightmares until she heard a voice that was saying that it wasn’t real, what she was hearing was Ballad’s mind focusing on the fact that whatever he was seeing was not real. The leggings Daring had given them did far more then expedite the ability to communicate outside your own language, they also allowed you to communicate telepathically and Daring did not know of this feature at all. Tress certainly found this out quickly enough when the Slumbergath’s hold on her had faltered harshly upon hearing Ballad’s voice, it gave her enough focus to shrug off its nightmare stare.

Not being able to get a grip on one victim and then losing its grip on another, the Slumbergath started shrinking and was growing weaker as it tried to feed off their fears. It soon could no longer hold Daring who broke the grip on herself without the aid of Tress and Ballad, she was furious and now directing her anger at the Slumbergath. There was nothing for it to feed off after that even as it kept trying to force nightmares onto them, all of which they were now blocking effortlessly.

The Slumbergath continued to shrink down until it was the size of an average slug and then with a pop it went out with a whimper. Even the greatest of warriors couldn’t have faced it alone, it took more than one to take down a Slumbergath and Daring Do regaining her mental fortitude was the killing blow.

“That thing… it was horrific. I saw things that I should have known that were impossible to come to pass.” Daring shivered the memories of all those apocalyptic visions dancing around in her head, she had put a stop to many a plot to destroy the world or just see it burn and she would continue to do so to her dying days.

“Good riddance.” Ballad had saved their lives and was being humble about helping take down a monster that literally scares you to death.

“Yeah, all we need to do is open that gate and get at the lamp.” Tress trotted up to the iron bars separating them from the lamp. “Did you know these leggings mentally connected the users?”

“Not a clue, I guess I should research everything magical that I have at my disposal a bit more to see if there are any more interesting things I’ve missed. So it really made you able to hear what Ballad was thinking?” It was just a bit of curiosity on Daring’s part, she thought they just allowed you to understand another’s language. Apparently the language of the mind and heart were also included as languages.

“He’s currently thinking of a way to get through those iron bars, he actually wants to destroy that thing and regrets ever having gone after it in the first place.” Tress noted Daring’s face lighten up on her glare at the natives back. “I can actually see his heart is set on making it up to the princess for causing all this, kind of has a golden feel to it.”

“The vizier has hurt too many to be allowed to get away with it.” Ballad was pretty set on his course of action, that thing was getting destroyed as soon as any one of them reach it and by hoof if necessary, even if it meant injuring themselves on the shards of metal crushing the lamp to pieces.

“I’ve got three bombs left, two should be enough for the lamp given I use this cork and some sports tape.” The pith helmet wearing pony moved towards the gate while reaching into her satchel, one never knew what might be useful and her hat has saved her life more than once alone. Her whip was the least important thing she carried on her unless one of her wings were broken again, that fact that she can still use them after thirty or so times of being broken is miraculous.

Taking out a bomb Daring wedged it into two of the bars in the gate that was the only thing stopping them from getting to the lamp. She lit her torch aflame and then put it the fuse and quickly flew back to the others. It exploded as powerfully as the rest of her skeleton destroying explosives and the gate was wrenched apart leaving a gaping hole.

“Those things are pretty powerful, where in the world do you get them from?” Because Tress wanted some and she happened to like explosions, probably a nuance of the small evil side of her that still existed.

“From the airship shops of the Beetle’s clan, I swear all those ponies are changelings since they look so much alike. I usually get them through special delivery mail order. It’s a bit costly but I have plenty of bits, saving the world really doesn’t pay nearly as much as my books do.” Daring slowly walked towards the hole followed by Ballad and Tress. “Every bomb guaranteed to blow up when lit or your money back! I still don’t know how they guarantee it, but so far they haven’t killed me or made me lose a hoof yet.”

An explosion of yellow smoke threw Tress, Daring and Ballad back forty feet, a pair of silver eyes on a large body with six arms appeared floating before them. Its eyes narrowed on them, aside from the six arms and the lion like head it have no lower body as it hovered there in front of them. It lifted one of its six arms and sent a powerful blast of energy past all of them missing them completely; the sound of something collapsing could be heard.

“This must be the jinn… it has sealed us in with it!” Watching the creature from the lamp Ballad watched as with a wave of its hand fire covered the entrance to the room with the lamp.

“Apparently it doesn’t like us threatening its lamp, come on we can take it.” Daring stood up and brandished her whip snapping it at the floor while staring down the solid silver eyes in the floating goliaths head.

The jinn just looked at the three that got by all those traps and so swiftly as well; it wasn’t going to toy with them he would have to take them out immediately. It immediately raised its four upper arms and they cracked with electrical energy, it still had a penchant for causing a lot of pain and the only one that may withstand a prolonged blast from a room filled with electrical energy would be the winged one. Teleporting to the middle of the room and raised all four of its arms together unleash a furious amount of electrical energy started surging outward throughout the room.

Both Daring and Ballad had closed their eyes at the blinding light, Tress however just leapt in front of them. Upon the two opening their eyes all they were watching all of the energy converge on Tress and the form inside of the electrical energy was slowly growing. The jinn immediately stopped filling the room with his power feeling something draining it and looked to where all that energy filling the room went to, one of its most devastating attacks was blocked by a single mare without magic.

The energy build up dissipated and then the mare that was standing where Tress used to be started cackling. In fact the laughter became a bit wild and the mares mane was positively alive with arcs of energy bouncing around in it.

“Well that was euphoric, I’ll just brush up on my laugh some more.” Cackling like a mad mare the Mane-iac stared straight into the surprised eyes of the jinn. “Time for me to let my hair down I guess, Tress has left the building! Excuse me, but can you hold on to this? Thank you.”

The mare stripped the legging from her hoof and tossed it to Daring, flipped her vibrant green hair and gave a devilish smile before her hair slammed the jinn against the wall in the time it took for it to blink. It reacted by swinging the two swords held by its lower arms at her at insane speeds only for them to be stopped by the mares mane.

“I really don’t need help with my split ends, but thank you for trying!” With a tug Mane-iac had both the larger than life swords impaled to the hilt into two differing nearby pillars, much to the shock of the jinn that it had been physically overpowered. She followed it up by whipping around the full mass of her mane and it went through the jinn’s body as it phased out of the way of the attack. “Aw come now, don’t avoid my mane. It is to die for after all!”

The Mane-iac shot to a nearby pillar before the stream of fireballs sent at her in retaliation could even come close to hitting her and she stood on the side of the pillar with her hair wrapping around it. Daring flew up to Mane-iac and asked the obvious.

“What the buck just happened to you! What are you even?” Daring was now wearing the legging for Ballads benefit; he was worried about his new friend having changed so drastically.

“I’m not Lady Lovely Locks if that’s what you’re asking!” Even as she said this, Mane-iac rolled her eyes leaning backwards off the pillar in an odd manner. She quickly leapt off the pillar to another one as a powerful blast of wind gouged out large sections of stone from the pillar. “Maybe you should be paying more attention to the real threat here Do-gooder!”

“How did you know…? Never mind that, you’re right! We need that lamp gone like yesterday!” Daring flew around a fireball and looked for Ballad who was taking cover behind the pillar. They still had to get to the lamp which was now protected by a skin melting wall of fire that had rose up around the hole where the gate used to be.

“Are you a Kirin?” It was the only words the jinn would say now and it was thoroughly displeased with the power that was absorbed from it. There were legends of Kirin, otherwise noted as a two horned mystical horse. This being didn’t have two horns, but it was already proven quite powerful if seemingly insane. The things flowing mane was kind of like the fires in the legends that was said to be flowing on the body of one.

“Nope, but I’ll certainly try Kirin you now!” Penchant for bad puns aside, the Mane-iac was going to take this fight to the jinn and rummy to anyone who could stop her from doing so.

Author's Note:

Well this arc is about to come to an abrupt stop, especially now that Mane-iac is fully restored it'll take a large amount of damage to drop her into having to conserve energy.

Qilin/Kirin, said to have two horns and bodies wreathed with flaming hair. In general they are basically chinese unicorns, a chimerical creature seen as signs of good luck and prosperity. Not to be confused with Dragon Ball's Krillan, who is seen as a sign of constant pain, suffering, comic relief and hopelessness.

I think a Qilin is what you get when you mix a horse and a dragon.

Also this was posted with very little editing. Will come back and look over later.

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[RC]

Just thankful for the update