After being tricked into using a forbidden spell to enter the void, Damon Lipton is turned into a Lich and thrown into Equestria by the God of Mischief. Dorian the Deranged.
After being tricked into using a forbidden spell to enter the void, Damon Lipton is turned into a Lich and thrown into Equestria by the God of Mischief. Dorian the Deranged. The God mistaking Damon for a follower of his.
Now stuck in Equestria, Damon finds himself thrown into a series of bizarre and epic adventures that will change his life, and those around him, for the better. And quite possibly for the worse.
It was a quiet summers day in the temple, mages of all races and age were going about their individual daily routines. The practise halls, filled with young aspiring mages, who were beginning their first ever lessons in the art of magic on the long journey to become a master of the arcane arts. The library was filled with thousands upon thousands of books, scrolls and old tomes each containing a vast sea of knowledge, the likes of which was only dreamt about in the whole of Cyrium. Sitting in a small section of the library, all by themselves were two people, an old elven man with long silver hair and wearing dark grey robes with matching hood and cloak, and standing up across from him leaning on a wall, was a young man with brilliant green eyes and short brown messy hair, looking absolutely bored out of his mind.
The elven man was holding a large, ancient looking tome and had a clear look of irritation on his face, with a sigh he slammed the book closed and took a seat, rubbing his temples as he leant his elbows on the table.
“For Xerillien’s sake Damon... you’re as stubborn as a dwarf, you know that?” He sighed.
“But Master Kalanar, I’ve already learned the basic and adept spells! Why can’t we, I don’t know, start training me in the higher levels?” Damon grumbled.
“Because you’re still too young Damon, you’re only twenty eight. You’ll be taught the higher level spells once the council has agreed you are ready, now,” Kalanar picked up a different book and placed it on the opposite end of the table, “turn to page three hundred and ninety four.”
Damon scoffed before sitting in the chair, his arms crossed in a huff. He idly turned the pages of the book to the correct one as Kalanar began to drone on about warding spells, Damon let his thoughts drift off as he looked at the pages with little interest. He had been found by Kalanar at the age of ten in the Northern range of the Dalmora mountains whilst studying dragons with the Dragore, and after finding out his parents had died a couple of years prior he had decided to take the young boy back to the temple with him, as he had displayed signs of a promising mage.
Kalanar loved Damon like a son, and even though Damon would occasionally act like a spoilt brat and complain about his lessons on magic and other things such as history, Kalanar knew that the boy wasn’t lazy, just a little impatient.
“Ok, Damon... can you repeat what I just said?”
Kalanar looked up from the book he had been reading from and blinked, staring and the face of Damon who was gazing downwards, his eyes slightly adrift from the book and away with his thoughts. Kalanar sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose before walking round behind Damon and dropping the tome just in front of him with a loud bang.
Damon snapped his head back grunting as he blinked in surprise, leaning his head back to see the very annoyed look of his Master looking down at him. He nervously chuckled and smiled up at Kalanar.
“Uh... what was the question again?” Damon asked.
“You’re bloody hopeless sometimes...” Kalanar sighed, “I said, can you cast a protection ward?”
“Yes,” Damon replied.
“...Well?”
“Well what?” Damon grinned.
“You bloody know what, Damon, answer the question.” Kalanar shook his head, “come on.”
Damon snickered as he stood up, one of the ways Damon would pass the time was by winding up Kalanar. It wasn’t all that difficult really, the old elf didn’t seem to have a sense of humour so naturally he was easy to wind up. They began to exit the library and pass by all the other mages who were going out their business and headed outside of the temple towards the practice grounds.
“Ok,” Kalanar started, “I’m going to use fireballs to try and break your shield, you must keep it going for five minutes whilst I bombard you, ok?”
Damon nodded as he got ready to cast the spell.
“Don’t forget, you can move the shield around.”
Damon took a deep breath as he closed his eyes and concentrated, he felt his magic flowing throughout his body and focused it towards the tips of his fingers. Opening his eyes he raise his arms out in front of him and pointed his palms upwards, soon his hands began to glow a light green and the image of a glowing kite shield appeared, covering the front of his body. Kalanar nodded in approval as he raised his arm in the air and muttered under his breath, Damon watched as three copies of Kalanar appeared behind him and to his right and left, all with their hands ignited with fire ready to cast their fireball spell.
“Ready Damon?” Kalanar asked.
“Ready,” Damon replied.
“Then let us begin."
“Stupid fireball...” Damon muttered.
He was lying on the ground, smoke slowly raising from his body as Kalanar stood over him, shaking his head slightly.
“If I've told you once, Damon, I’ve told you a thousand times. Keep your eyes open for flanking attacks, the ward spell only covers the position you're facing!” Kalanar said.
“I know, I know,” Damon replied.
“Clearly you don’t, what were doing yesterday when you were meant to be practising your technique with your classmates?”
Damon’s mind briefly flashed back to him outside of the temple, he had been about to start his practise with the others when he noticed an odd looking butterfly nearby, ignoring the protests of his classmates and out of curiosity he had decided to follow it instead and try to catch it, failing badly each time he did and it wasn't until the butterfly had lost him did he realise he was in the forest at the base of the temple and roughly five hours had passed and he was late for his next lesson.
“Uh... practising?”
Kalanar glared at Damon as he tried his best to keep his face straight, but the gaze Kalanar gave him was one of his many weaknesses and Damon chuckled nervously.
“I... may have been observing some wildlife?”
Kalanar sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose again growling slightly in annoyance.
“I want you to write me a report on everything there is to know about ward spells, by tomorrow and if you don’t get it done, I’m going to make you clean out the stables the visitors use for two months!”
“But-”
“No buts, Damon, just do it. I need to go to a meeting with the other elders, I’ll see you in the morning, six am sharp.”
Damon stood where he was speechless, he tried to speak but no words came out as he watched Kalanar walk back into the temple.
“FUCK!” He shouted out kicking the ground.
“By the ancestors... my brain hurts...” Damon groaned.
Damon slowly raised his slumped head form the book he had been reading for the past two hours, all around the small table he was sitting at were dozens of books, some open and some waiting to be read. Beside the book was several scrolls, some blank and some with half arsed writing on them. he had lost track of how long he had actually been in the library but he figured it must have been at least five hours, given the two moons were in the sky. Letting out a sigh as he looked out the window, he tried to focus on his work, vowing to work throughout the entire night in order to get the report done in time.
“So... dragons have two of them? Huh, learn something new everyday...”
Damon turned the page over from the large book about dragons he had found, about ten minutes ago, after vowing to work all night, he had gotten bored and decided to stretch his legs and have a walk around the library where he stumbled across the section that contained information on every monster and creature that existed in Cyrium, so naturally he got curious and after rummaging for a few minutes he brought back several books on various creatures and began to read them.
“Ok, let’s see what we have then...”
Damon yawned loudly as he gazed over the scroll that contained his work, it had taken him several long, painful hours but he finally finished the report. He yawned again and glanced out the window to see the sun was slowly rising, with a rub of his eyes he rose from his seat and rolled the scroll up before heading to the exit of the library. As he walked, he let out a pained cry as something heavy landed on his head with a thump before it fell to the ground. He looked down to see a book had fallen from the shelf and onto his head, picking it up he read the title out loud.
“Traversing the void...”
Damon’s eyes glistened as he felt a familiar and overwhelming urge of curiosity fill him as he quickly rushed back to his seat with the book and began to read, his eyes glue to the pages. As he read, his eyes grew wider and his grin threatened to stretch of his face and failed to hear the low chuckle that came from above him.
“Where is that boy?” Kalanar wondered.
He had been waiting in the courtyard for a good twenty minutes and was getting impatient that Damon was late, with a sigh he stood up and headed back inside the main building and headed straight for the quarters where the younger mages slept, finding Damon not to be there, he was told by another student that Damon had been in the library all night. Kalanar smiled to himself, happy that Damon was at least late for a reason.
He quickly strode his way to the library, chuckling to himself on the idea that Damon had actually done what he was asked to. As he approached the library, there was a loud rumbling sound as a deep voice echoed in the temple, Kalanar recognised it immediately as belonging to Damon and ran towards where the sound was coming from.
“And... done!”
Damon took a step back from his work and grinned to himself, he stared down at the circle he had drawn onto the floor, he was inside one of the practise rooms which he had locked the door to so he wouldn’t be disturbed. The circle itself was drawn in chalk and had runic symbols drawn around it as well as inside the circle, he hadn’t found the candles that the book was describing and didn’t want to waste time looking for some, so he had improvised by using regular normal candles in the right spots. Satisfied he was ready, he sat in the middle of the circle and flipped a few of the pages trying to find the correct incantation.
“Ah here we go!”
He began to mutter under his breath, the circle began to glow as his eyes shone a bright white and his voice rumbled in the room. The door burst open and Kalanar along with two other mages looked at Damon in shock and anger, just as Kalanar was about to try and cancel the spell, the books suddenly exploded in a bright light startling Damon.
“That’s not supposed-”
There was a loud boom that rumbled throughout the whole temple and the three mages shielded their eyes from a bright light that suddenly erupted from the spot Damon was in. As the light quickly faded, Damon was no longer sitting in what was left of the circle, only the book remained.
“That book...” Kalanar whispered as he walked over and picked it up, “this was meant to be locked in the vaults... how did he get his hands on it?”
Luna sighed as she got into her bed, it had been a long night in the night court. After her return a month ago, things had been very rough for the Princess of the Night. Many of the nobles and even some of the night guards were still cautious around her, and she had difficulty understanding the new policies that had come into effect during her absence.. Celestia had done her best to help her sister with some of duties as did her nephew, Blueblood, who she had recently met. He was an arrogant pony at times, but he saw that his new aunt was struggling and offered to take care of the minor problems that affected the town of Canterlot itself.
Sighing in content as she wiggled her way into her bed, she closed the curtains with her magic just as her sisters sun was peeking over the horizon and closed her eyes. Suddenly there was a crackle sound like lightning and a flash of white followed by a loud thump beside her, causing her to be thrown up slightly in her bed and land near the end. Gasping softly as she looked around trying to find what the heck that sound was when her eyes fell upon what was beside her in her bed.
Her eyes widened and her pupils shrank to the size of a pin head as she stared at what appeared to be a charred skeleton of a bipedal creature in slightly tattered blue robes. She let out a soft gasp, pitying the poor creature that was clearly dead.
Or so she thought.
Her mouth dropped as the skeleton sat up and looked around his surroundings, before slipping off the bed completely ignoring the fact she was there and placed it stands on its hips before giving out an impressed whistle.
“Man, this place is fancy... wonder where the heck I am anyway? Certainly isn’t the temple...”
She blinked as the skeleton spoke in a deep, booming and deathly voice before gasping and covering her mouth with a hoof. The skeleton turned round at the sound and saw her in the bed, its black eye sockets staring at her with a glowing green dot in the centre, from its pose it looked surprised but she couldn't; really tell due to the fact it was a skeleton and had no face.
“Uhm... hi?” It feebly said with a wave.
Luna’s ears lowered as she opened her mouth, the skeleton panicked and made shushing motions with its hands.
Damon blinked a couple of times to make sure he wasn’t dreaming, even going as far as to pinch his skin a few times. He was standing in a vast space of complete whiteness, nothing was there, just himself. He began to walk forwards, his boots echoing around him as he walked through the vast nothingness trying to figure out exactly where he was.
“Am I dead?” He said aloud.
“Not really dead, well you're dead, but you're not dead dead!” A voice replied, “about three fourths of the way there I’d reckon.”
Damon spun on the spot trying to locate the source of the voice but couldn’t see anyone, raising an eyebrow in confusion he turned around before crying in surprise as he came face to face with a grinning man. The man in question was wearing a long billowing black coat with a white shirt and black vest underneath it, a white cravat that dangled elegantly from his neck and the top hat he was sporting was black in colour, two white gloves, long black formal trousers and shoes, and in his right hand was a cane with the head of a fox made from what appeared to be silver. What made Damon slightly nervous was the fact the man's eyes were completely black ,save for a small silver dot that was just barely noticeable where his pupils should be.
“Uhm... who are you?” Damon asked.
The man scoffed and placed hand over his heart in mock hurt, dramatically stumbling backwards.
“Your words wound me, sir! I thought we were friends?”
“I don’t even know who you are, you’re not making any sense!”
“Aren’t you Delaros?” The man asked him.
“No... I’m Damon, Damon Lipton.”
“My apologies my good man,” the man said with a grin, “I thought you were someone else.”
Damon blinked at the man and started to back away slowly before bumping into something, he looked behind him to see the man standing there with a grin still stuck on his face, he looked back and saw that man had definitely moved from his original spot before looking back and seeing the man had vanished, again.
He turned round and cried out again in surprise as the man stood directly in front of him and grabbed him firmly by the hand and roughly shook it.
“The names Dorian, my good fellow,” Dorian continued to roughly shake his hand, threatening to rip it off.
“D-Dorian?!” Damon whispered, his eyes shrinking a little bit, “as in...”
“THE DERANGED? GOD OF MISCHIEF AND SLIGHT INSANITY? WHY YES INDEED!” Dorian bellowed with a loud laugh, “Sooo nice to see one of my followers remembering who I am!”
“Uhm.. I’m not-”
“So tell me, my boy, what brings you to the lovely realm that is the void?” Dorian asked.
Dorian tapped the ground with his staff and the area changed to a large room filled to the brims with treasure ranging from gold coins to large diamonds, in the dead centre was a golden throne with a skeleton of a man wearing a beautiful crown. He walked up to the throne and picked the crown up before tossing it aside.
“Move over old boy.”
He backhanded the skeleton with his cane roughly, causing it to shoot off to the left of him and shatter into dust as Dorian took a seat and grinned down at Damon.
“So, what can I do for you, loyal follower?”
“I’m not-”
“Perhaps I can make you a king? Or a god? Or perhaps even the greatest rat catcher in all of Cyrium? I heard it pays well!” Dorian interrupted.
“But your-”
“OH I know!” Dorian interrupted again, “you want me to give you the power to become the greatest illusionist in order to defeat your long time rival Thimble Tumblelock!”
“...Who?” Damon asked before shaking his head, “look, your... almightiness? I’m not here for any of that, I’m here because I used a spell and I’m not even-”
“Oh, I know how you got here boy, how do you think you found that book without ol’ Dorian’s help?” He chuckled as he twirled his cane.
“But why did you give it to me?” Damon asked him.
“Anything for a loyal follower!”
“I’m not a follower of yours! I follow Varlos for crying out loud!”
“Says you,” Dorian grinned.
“I’m being serious!” Damon protested, getting annoyed with the God.
The room went cold as Dorian glared down at Damon, Damon audibly gulped as the room began to return back to the white void as Dorian rapidly approached him, rage etched on his face.
“How dare you pretend to be one of my followers?! After everything I’ve ever done for you!”
“You didn’t do anything for me except give me that book!”
“But... I gave you that to cure your ongoing curiosity problem...” Dorian said with a frown on his face.
“What are...”
“No matter!” Dorian interrupted, “perhaps we can make this all better if you do me a small favour, seeing as you can’t go back.”
“What do you mean, can’t go back?” Damon asked raising his eyebrow.
“You used the wrong kind of candles, dear boy, such a silly but rookie mistake,” Dorian chuckled, “I’m so proud of you!”
“Will you stop it! Just send me back already!”
“I can’t, but I can do one better!” Dorian grinned.
“Define better...” Damon asked, not really wanting to hear it.
“You see, I have this bet going with a dear, dear friend of mine. You may of heard of him? Chap goes by the name of Discord, God of chaos.” Dorian replied.
“Who?”
“Oh, I’m sure he would be hurt with a reply like that,” Dorian chuckled, “but anyway, he made a bet with me that he could prove to me that his chaos was more powerful than my mischief!”
Damon stood there, listening to the God as he continued to talk, leaning on his cane for support as he made a cup of tea appear and sipped from it.
“Anyway, long story short, he’s a statue now.”
Damon raised an eyebrow in curiosity, wondering how a God wound up being incarcerated in stone.
“And the little dickens was able to contact me, using a variety of chickens, pink clouds and an exploding glass,” he looked at Damon’s confused expression but shrugged, “and asked me to give him a helping hand at getting out.”
“So?” Damon asked, stupidly.
Dorian chuckled as Damon heard something behind him and saw a portal open up, he suddenly felt himself being pulled towards it and turned round to look at Dorian.
“You can’t do this!” He protested.
“Actually I can, see, you got yourself stuck here because you used the wrong candles, reading helps kid, trust me,” Dorian chuckled, “but here’s the kicker, if you help my good chum out and at the same time have fun with the locals then I promise you that I will tell you how you can use six specific, pretty gems as a way to get back.”
“What the fuck are you talking about!?”
“All in good time my not so loyal follower, all in good time... but first, I think we should change your appearance, I find being human is a bit boring and overdone these days, so lets spice it up!”
Dorian tapped his cane on the ground and Damon cried out in agonizing pain as he felt like his skin was being ripped from his very body
Now, enjoy your new look! Don’t try and scare too many of the locals! TA-TA!” Dorian waved before punting Damon into the portal.
Damon screamed as he fell into the portal.
‘What was that all about...? Damon thought to himself.
He felt something soft underneath him and sat upright, looking around and seeing that he was in a large bed in a large regal looking room. He slipped off the bed and walked a few feet forwards, all the while admiring the architecture as well as the colours.
‘Interesting... I know I should feel confused and slightly concerned right now but... I feel different... almost... giddy.’
He then placed his hands on his hips and let out an impressed whistle, as he noticed the fine artwork on the ceiling of the room.
“Man... this place is fancy.. wonder where the heck I am anyway? Certainly isn’t the temple...”
Damon then heard a gasp from behind him and turned around, looking in surprise at a blue pegasus with a horn staring right back at him. They stared at one another for a while as Damon tried to process what was going on or in fact what to say.
“Uhm... hi?” He said feebly with a wave.
The horse's ears lowered and it opened its mouth, Damon sensed that it was about to scream and brought his finger to his lip and shushed her.
“Please don’t scream!” He asked.
He covered his ears as the female screamed, panicking slightly he looked to the door and ran for it, just as an entire bookcase flew over his head and smashed into the wall. Yanking the doors open he spotted several heavily armed ponies charging towards him, each looking slightly confused, startled and afraid.
Slamming the door shut, he was greeted by his robe being violently pulled towards the female, a blue glowing aura on his robes. He flailed as he tried to get free and accidently cast a fireball spell that rocketed from his hand onto the bed setting it alight, the blue aura vanished as the female began to put the fire out.
Damon looked around trying to find a way out of the room and saw the window just as the door to the room burst open and the armoured ponies rushed inside, seeing no alternative, Damon ran full pelt at the window covering his face with his arms and crashed straight through it. The horses in the room blinked in surprise as they stared at the now broken window.
“I didn’t think this one through!” Damon cried out as he plummeted.
He felt the wind rush past him as his speed increased towards the ground, now regretting that he had jumped out of the window. Damon had prayed that the room he had been in was on a ground floor but that wasn’t the case, it was actually a tower he had just thrown himself out of.
He tried to think of a spell that would prevent him from becoming a stain on the ground but nothing came to his mind, he began to panic as he flailed in the air as the ground came closer and closer and he closed his eyes, ready to embrace death. But it never came.
Damon noticed that the wind had stopped rushing past him and he slowly opened his eyes and blinked as he came face to face with another pegasus with a horn, only this one was white and its horn was glowing gold. He looked down to see that they were a few feet off the ground and hovering in mid air, he also noticed the ground below him was swarming with armed ponies.
“What are you?” The horse spoke in a calm, yet authoritative tone.
“Damon,” he replied casually.
“You’re a Demon?!” She suddenly cried.
“DEMON?! WHERE!?” Damon cried out in alarm, frantically looking around him.
Damon felt the magic aura around him suddenly constrict him tightly as he choked slightly.
“YOU SHALL RETURN TO TARTARUS FOUL DEMON!” She bellowed in a powerful booming voice.
“I’m.... not... a.... demon!” Damon gasped.
“YOUR LIES WILL NOT FOOL ME, FOUL DEMON!”
“I’m... a... human! My name... is Damon!”
The horse glared at him for a moment, as if she was looking over his entire being which made Damon slightly uncomfortable. He then saw her smile slightly and felt the grip on him loosen and they slowly began to levitate downwards.
“Although your appearance is... unsettling, I can sense no harmful evil within you. I apologise for this but, I must ask you to come with me for questioning, namely why you were in my sisters bedroom.”
“Wait, what’s wrong with the way I-”
Before Damon could finish, he was struck in side by a powerful blast of magic that sent him hurtling him across the courtyard and into a wall with a mighty crash, causing it to crumble around him.
“HOW DARE YOU BREAK INTO MY ROYAL CHAMBERS AND TRY TO HAVE YOUR WAY WITH ME! YOU FILTHY BRUTE!”
“Luna!” The white horse shouted in surprise.
Damon groaned as he stood up, shaking the dust of his robes and startling the horse who were shocked to see him get up seemingly in no pain at all.
“Look, you strange horsie thing, I’m sure all the stallions are trying to ‘get it on’ with you,” Damon replied with air marks, “but I wouldn’t even think about trying to do that with a horse, I have morals, thank you.”
The whole area went deathly silent, everyone slowly turned to look at the blue horse whose face was slowly turning red as she began to grind her teeth, her eyes alight, twitching with anger, fury and embarrassment.
“Well... he’s screwed,” Damon heard a nearby guard whisper to another.
Damon’s eyes shrank as he quickly turned round and began to run like a man on fire as a large blast of magic incinerated the wall behind him, he screamed as the blue horse chased after him, shooting blast after blast of magic from her horn.
The white horse stood there blinking, before trying her best to stop herself from bursting out in laughter.
“Princess Celestia,” one of the guards said, “should we arrest that creature?”
“I think, my dear lieutenant, we need to rescue the creature from my sisters wrath. Don’t you think so?” She tittered.
The lieutenant nodded with a slight smirk as he barked an order and the guards quickly dispersed in order to locate the creature before it could be destroyed by Princess Luna. Celestia watched her guards run after her sister and the skeleton, keeping a calm expression on her face as she turned and headed back inside the palace.
‘Although I don’t sense any true evil from it... I’m concerned that it showed no signs of damage from Luna’s attack...’ she thought to herself, ‘I need to find out why...
Damon panted as he hid behind a wall, trying to regain his breath. He had managed to lose the one called Luna as well as the guards and finally had a moment to think about his next step.
“Ok... now what?” He wondered aloud.
As he tried to think of his next plan of attack, he remembered what the white one had said to him about his appearance. looking around for something reflective, he saw a bucket nearby and quickly walked over to it. He waved his hand over it and muttered under his breath as it began to quickly fill up with water. Looking into the bucket he was surprised as a skeleton’s head with two small green flames where his pupils would have been stared back at him and he cried out, throwing the bucket at the wall smashing it.
“WHAT THE HELL DID HE DO TO ME?!” Damon cried out.
He began to hyperventilate which scared him as he realised that he must not have any internal organs, which made him panic even more as he felt his face with his bony hands.
“Ok Damon... remain calm,” he started, taking a deep breath, “I’m sure there’s a reason for this, all you gotta do is find a quiet place to pray to Dorian and ask him what the fuck is going on, no problem!”
“Oh... there is a problem...” a female voice whispered coldly into where his ear would be.
Damon slowly turned his head and came face to face with Luna, her eyes wide and pupils shrunken, a slight twitch in her eye as she grinned manically at him.
“Hello...” she whispered.
“Good bye!” Damon replied.
He launched himself into the air using an air blast just as Luna blasted the spot he was sitting and landed on the castle wall, quickly dashing along the wall as he heard the sound of wings flapping and an enraged female roar.
Twilight was sitting at her desk in her home reading a large book about advanced teleportation spells, she had been in Ponyville for a month or so now after moving there from Canterlot in order to study friendship for Princess Celestia. Life was fairly basic in Ponyville, aside from the Nightmare Moon incident, and Twilight had started to become used to it and everything was going perfectly for her.
There was a knock on the door and she looked over her shoulder, closing the book with her magic.
“It’s open!”
“Hey Twilight, this scroll just came for you from the Princess,”
Twilight smiled as Spike entered the room, carrying a scroll in his hand and a emerald cupcake in the other.
“Thank you Spike...” she said, raising her eyebrow at the cupcake.
“I uh... thought I could have it as a treat for cleaning up the main part of the library?” Spike sheepishly grinned.
“And did you?” Twilight asked.
There was a brief pause before Spike dropped the scroll and ran back out of the room, slamming the door shut and leaving Twilight to giggle to herself as she levitated the scroll up and began to read.
“Dear Twilight Sparkle...”
“LOOK, I’M SORRY IF THE WHOLE HORSE THING OFFENDED YOU!” Damon shouted out.
“IF YOU ARE INDEED SORRY, THEN TAKE YOUR PUNISHMENT LIKE A STALLION!” Luna shouted back.
Damon shuddered as a horrifying image entered his mind as he was chased down a street with Luna in hot pursuit, ponies had since gathered outside to see what the whole ruckus was about and were terrified when an enraged Luna appeared, trying to blast what appeared to be a walking skeletal creature that was screaming in fear itself.
“HOLD STILL!”
“ARE YOU CRAZY!?”
They watched as a beam of magic blasted past the skeleton and into a building, blowing up the side of the building revealing the shocked residents inside. As Luna continued to chase Damon through the streets, the guards who had been trying to keep up with them arrived on the scene and winced at the destruction Luna had caused.
“Sir, this is getting out of hand, we need Princess Celestia to help us now! Princess Luna’s gone crazy!” a guard said to the lieutenant.
“Agreed, Steel Horn, Red Wing, go back to the palace and request Princess Celestia’s assistance at once!” The lieutenant barked.
The two guards in question saluted before flying off back to the palace, the lieutenant turned round biting his lip.
“I just hope that none of the citizens say-”
“EVERYPONY RUN! NIGHTMARE MOON’S RETURNED!” A mare screamed.
All around the guards, ponies screamed and ran as far away as they could as Luna continued to give chase to the skeleton, blasting more buildings in her rage induced state.
“Perfect...” he muttered.
‘I need to get out of here! That crazy mare is going to kill me!’
Damon panted a she dove into a large wooden box that was in an alley way and held onto his breath, still trying to work out why he was actually breathing but decided to focus on that later, right now he had more important matters to deal with.
“YOU CAN’T HIDE FROM ME FOREVER!” He heard Luna below as she suddenly flew over his hiding spot.
Holding his breath as he waited until the sounds of wings flapping faded, he let out a sigh of relief as he poked his head out from his hiding spot and saw Luna flying away in the distance. Slinking his way out of the barrel he began to run in the opposite direction, determined to get out of the city and far away as possible from her.
He came to the end of the alleyway and peered around the corner, he could see ponies running about in fear, unsure as to why Luna was randomly blasting buildings and wondering just what it was she had been chasing. Damon waited for the right moment before quickly running out into the open, hoping to make it to another alleyway.
Sadly though, luck wasn’t on his side.
Damon fell to the ground with a loud grunt as he ran straight into someone, he shook his head and looked up and saw that he had run into a green coloured pony with a dark green mane and what appeared to be a pipe on his flank. The two stared at each other for a moment before the stallion opened his mouth, Damon quickly pushed his hand to the stallion’s mouth and shushed him.
“Look, I’m not here to hurt anyone, please trust me!” Damon begged.
The stallion looked at him confused for a moment, until a loud boom came from behind them. Damon looked behind him to see Luna flying back towards them, he didn’t know if she had spotted him yet and turned round back to the stallion.
“HIDE ME!” He cried, jumping onto the back of the stallon.
“Get off me!” The stallion cried, bucking Damon off him.
“Please, you have to help me!” Damon pleaded as he crawled back to the stallion, “she’s crazy!”
The stallion was about to say something, when he froze and his eyes went wide and his pupils shrank to the size of a pin.
“She’s behind me... isn’t she?” Damon whispered.
The stallion turned and fled, screaming that Nightmare Moon was trying to get him as Damon slowly turned around, coming once again face to face with the enraged twitchy eyed Luna.
“Gotcha!” Luna cackled.
Damon screamed as Luna blasted him point blank with her magic, sending him flying backwards and into a building wall levelling it. Luna smirked at her work and with a nod, she turned around to leave, only to find a very angry looking Celestia glaring at her.
“Tia?” She asked.
“Luna... care to explain all of this?”
Celestia pointed with her wing to the ruined buildings around them, Luna followed the direction she was pointing at and winced as she saw the carnage she had caused before sheepishly smiling at Celestia.
“Furthermore, you have only been back a month and already caused the citizens to scream that Nightmare Moon has returned!”
Luna winced again as she realised full on what she did, she tried to find the words but she whimpered and pointed to the smoldering rubble.
“But... that thing started it!”
Celestia sighed as she walked over and nuzzled her little sister softly.
“Lulu... I’m to blame as well, I didn’t think you would take this as far as it escalated to, for that I’m sorry. But things have changed now, you can’t just go around blasting everypony you see who insults you,”
“I’m sorry Tia...” Luna began before gasping, “oh no... the creature!”
Both princesses ran over to the rubble only to find no trace of the creature, Luna bit her lip in worry as Celestia looked around her, trying to use her magic to track it down.
“Lieutenant, we need to find Damon as quickly as we can. He may cause alarm to my little ponies without meaning to and I fear for their, and his, safety.”
The lieutenant saluted her before he and the other guards began to search the surrounding area.
“I must go and inform Twilight about these events, just in case Damon turns up, you stay here Luna and help fix what you’ve done.” Celestia said before taking off for the palace.
Luna nodded and began to help put out some of the small fires that had sprung up from her attacks.
“Thank Xerillion I’m free...” Damon sighed in relief.
During the time Celestia had been talking to Luna, he had slipped out of the ruble and made a dash for a city gate, thanking the gods he had been able to slip out of the city undetected and proceeded to make his way towards the forest at the base of the mountain. As he had walked, keeping to the sides in order to be able to try and hide somewhat better if anyone came up or down along the path, he had spotted a small looking town at the base of the mountain on the border of the forest and decided that he could ‘borrow’ some supplies, if he was sneaky enough, and then figure out just exactly what it was he was going to do. But first he needed to find a nice place to sit down and pray to Dorian, hopefully to get some answers from the god.
After walking for what seemed like a good couple of hours, Damon managed to slip off the road without meeting anyone along the way. He was now walking through the forest and was humming softly to himself after managing to calm himself down from the events earlier that day, finding a nice apple tree at the start of what appeared to be a large orchard, he sat down by it and leant against it, closing his eyes and began to pray to Dorian.
He opened his eyes to see he was in the void, albeit his form was ghostly in appearance. Damon looked around trying to find Dorian and stopped, slowly turning on the spot knowing that Dorian was probably behind him. He was surprised to see he wasn’t and turned around before screaming as he came face to face with the grinning features of Dorian.
“Haha... never gets old that!” Dorian chuckled.
“L-look, just tell me why you did what you did to me!” Damon demanded.
“Easy, little follower, no need to get your long johns in a twist.”
“There’s every reason!” Damon snapped, “you turned me into a fucking lich! And for the last time, I’m not your follower!”
“Ah... that, well it’s like I said my boy. I find being human is overrated, so I decided you’d have more fun as a lich!” Dorian grinned.
“HOW IS IT MORE FUN?! I GOT CHASED AND NEARLY KILLED BY A BLUE HORSE THING!” Damon shouted.
Dorian burst out laughing as he slapped his knee, buckling over as Damon looked at him with gritted teeth and clearly not finding the funny side of it.
“I saw! Classic response on your half I think, great show!”
“Wait, you saw all of that!?”
“Of course, who do you think threw you into dear old Lulu’s bed?”
Damon stared at Dorian speechless, trying and failing to say something to the cackling man. He eventually gave up and sighed.
“Ok... I think my curiosity is full for one day, can I go back to Cyrium now?”
“No, no you can’t. We had a deal, Damon, you get my chum Discord free, and then I’ll tell you how to get back.”
“But... but...”
“No buts! Now off you go!”
“Wait, before I go, why a lich? Why that in particular?”
“Why not? I already told you, sending a little old human to a new world with several new species on a job for me seemed to overdone, so I decided that turning you into something else would be more fun!”
Damon just stared at him, trying to get his head around what Dorian was trying to explain to him.
“Ok... but why am I still alive? I got hit twice by a powerful magic blast!”
“Fair point, I don’t know why that happened. Maybe the magic just thought you were a swell guy and decided not to kill you,” Dorian sighed, “reminds me of my first honeymoon, ah memories...”
Damon was about to speak when Dorian shushed him and began to walk away from him, twirling his cane as he did.
“Now, I’m sure you have many other questions, but all in good time my dear, not so loyal, but not has no choice follower. But I have a few things I need to attend to, so pray to me later on and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible, ok?”
As Damon felt himself blacking out, Dorina spun round on the spot.
“Oh! And one more thing, don’t forget to have fun! That’s the main thing!”
The last thing Damon heard was the loud cackling of Dorian as he blacked out and disappeared from the void.
Damon opened his eyes to find himself back under the apple tree and sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose, before realising he was actually rubbing his skull.
“Well... remember what Kalanar would always say, ‘Make best of any situation your in.’”
Damon leant back back against the tree and stared at the red apples hanging above him, he stared at them with a strange sense of lust and curiosity before standing up and pointing his finger at one of them. With a quick mutter, he shot an arrow of magic at the stem, cutting the apple from the tree and caught it in one of his hands.
“Ok... experiment number one, can I eat?” He said aloud.
Bringing the apple to his mouth, he opened it and took a large bite with a loud crunch before chewing. He stopped as he went wide eyed and stared at the apple, feeling tears form in his eyes and ignoring the questioning of it from his mind he cried out.
“THIS IS THE BEST APPLE I’VE EVER TASTED!”
Sobbing softly as he took bite after bite and began to laugh madly as he went from tree to tree, taking the most succulent looking apples and eating them he suddenly stopped on his twentieth apple and blinked, then spat everything that was in his mouth out in disgust and looked at the apple seeing a half a worm sticking out of it.
“And... now I hate apples...” he muttered, tossing the apple aside.
He contemplated cleaning the mess that were the apples he had devoured but decided to leave it for nature to deal with, and began to make his way through the orchard.
Twilight paced back and forth in the library nervously, biting her lip as Spike sat on the sofa and watched her, casually munching on an emerald.
“Calm down, Twilight, you’re doing that pacing thing again.”
Twilight looked over at Spike then to the floor, seeing that she had started to make a groove into the floor from her pacing and sighed.
“I’m sorry, Spike, but this is important! You read the scroll!”
Spike rolled his eyes, the scroll had said that a strange skeletal creature had appeared in the middle of the capital and was intelligent but had managed to escape, Celestia had insisted in the scroll that the creature was not a threat at that current time due to the events that had happened earlier that day, which she had included in the scroll. Celestia went on to mention that she only wanted to capture the creature just to talk to it, and see if she could help it in anyway. Spike had read it as ‘we only need to talk to him, to make sure he is alright and that he isn’t a threat’, but Twilight had panicked, seeing as the Nightmare Moon incident was still fresh in everypony’s mind, and read it as ‘a new species that must be captured and questioned for the good of Equestria and her curiosity’.
The door to the library opened and Twilight spun her head around to see her friends walk in, minus Fluttershy.
“Thank you for coming at such short notice girls,” Twilight said, embracing them in a group hug, “where’s Fluttershy?”
“I’m sure she will be here in a moment, my dear. Now what’s all the fuss about?” Rarity asked.
Twilight levitated the scroll Celestia had sent her over to the group and they scanned it carefully before coming to mixed conclusions. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were a bit wary of the creature despite Spike trying to suggest that Celestia only wanted to find him to make sure he was safe, and that he wasn’t a threat. Rarity had made comments about a ‘disgusting beast’ as her mind played images of a savage monster that could terrorize everypony and Pinkie, Pinkie had declared that the creature should get its own party.
“So what ya reckon we should do, Twi’?” Applejack asked.
“I’m not sure... Princess Celestia said there might be the possibility of the creature coming here, and although she said it wasn’t a threat, we should at least be prepared for anything.” Twilight replied.
“So beat it up, tie it up and drag it back to town? No problem!” Rainbow grinned.
“No, no attacking it!” Twilight snapped, “we shouldn’t provoke it.”
“He,” corrected Spike.
“He,” Twilight said, “we shouldn’t provoke him.”
“Well... I still feel odd ‘bout this Twi’, given the whole Nightmare Moon thing the other month.”
“I know, which is why I said we should be careful about how we proceed, we should wait for Fluttershy then search the area around Ponyville before he is seen by anypony else, last thing we need is the town running in fear again...”
Damon came to he end of the forest and suddenly stopped, he looked to his left then to his right and scratched his chin. He had decided that he was going to try and find some way of finding out where he was exactly and had decided to ‘borrow’ a map from someone's home in the town he had spotted when he was fleeing Luna earlier, but this lead to his problem of deciding whether or not it would work. After a little bit of debating with himself, he had decided to throw caution to the wind and go for it.
After walking around the edge of the forest near the town, trying to find a suitable house he had managed to find himself looking at a secluded cottage that was separate from the town itself. Hiding behind a tree and watching it carefully, he couldn’t see any signs of life coming from it other then the animals that were outside the small cottage in various pens.
Making a quick dash for it, he exited the treeline and briskly walked over to the front of the cottage, his finger glowing white as he prepared a lock picking spell when the door opened and he froze on the spot as a female, yellow pegasus with a pink mane stared up at him, her eyes widening and pupils shrinking slowly.
The two stared at one another for what seemed like a lifetime until Damon broke the silence and canceled his spell.
“Hello?” He said, offering a smile and a wave.
What Damon didn’t realise is that, as a skeleton, a friendly smile didn’t look all that friendly to the one he was giving it to. The pegasus whimpered and opened her mouth.
‘Oh by the ancestor, not again!’
“Please don’t scream!” He pleaded.
Damon braced himself for a scream but only heard a slight squeal escaped her lips before her eyes rolled upwards and she fell to the ground unconscious. He looked at the body of her for a moment, tilting his head as he processed what had just happened.
Twilight looked back up to the clock and bit her lip before sighing and continuing to pace about in the library, Spike was sitting on the sofa, munching away on another gem cupcake and watching Twilight pace whilst reading a comic. Around her were the other girls who were looking concerned as well, Fluttershy still hadn’t turned up and they were beginning to worry about her whereabouts.
Spike had insisted over and over again that she was most likely running a bit late, what with her animals, and they should just remain calm. This however fell on deaf ears.
“Girls, we need to get over to Fluttershy’s house. I think she’s in danger,” Twilight suddenly said.
“Twilight… I really think you girls are overreacting slightly,” Spike said, casually turning a page.
“Over reacting? Over reacting?!” She shouted, “a new creature is on the loose, heading to Ponyville and Fluttershy hasn’t arrived yet! For all we know, she’s in grave danger!”
“Ah have to agree with ya there Twi,” Applejack replied, “it ain’t like Fluttershy to keep us waitin’ like this.”
“She’s probably just fussing with Angel, you know how much of a basta-” Spike stopped as Twilight gave him a glare, “little so and so he is.”
“I doubt it,” Rainbow countered him, “it wouldn’t take her this long to get herself ready.”
“You guys are being ridiculous!” Spike snapped, “just calm down, I’ll go find her if you're that paranoid,”
“We can’t let you do that pint size, it could be too dangerous and we wouldn’t want you getting hurt,” Rainbow said, placing a hoof in front of him
“I’m not a baby, Rainbow, I can take care of myself!” Spike grumbled.
“So, is that why do you ask me to tuck you in at night sometimes, Spike?” Twilight teased.
The girls giggled as Spike blushed in embarrassment before storming upstairs in a huff, Twilight then turned to the girls and continued talking.
“Okay, so should we go straight to her house as a group or split up. Just on the off chance she is town?”
Before anyone could answer, the door the library burst open and a frantic looking Roseluck rushed in, panting heavily.
“Monster! Everfree! Fluttershy! Kidnapped!” She managed to say in between her pants.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Rainbow said, “start again.”
Roseluck took a deep breath as she regained control of her breathing.
“Me, Lily and Daisy were heading to Fluttershy’s house for our weekly get together when we saw this horrific, ugly, evil creature run out of the forest. It was running right at Fluttershy before it dragged her into her home and closed the door!”
“What!?” The girls shouted in unison.
“We ran here as fast as we could to tell you, what with the Elements of Harmony and everything!”
“Okay, thank you, Roseluck. You stay here with the rest of the town and we’ll go help Fluttershy!” Twilight replied.
She then dashed to a box and opened it, revealing the elements inside. She levitated the respective elements to their owners as well as holding onto Fluttershy’s for her.
“But, Twilight,” Rarity began, “won’t the Elements be useless without Fluttershy?”
“Maybe, but it’s worth a shot. And besides, we might be able to get to her in time to give her her Element!” Twilight replied.
“Then we can have a ‘Hurray for not being eaten by the monster!’ party for her!” Pinkie grinned as she bounced in place.
“Alright girls, let’s go!”
“Again, I’m really sorry about scaring you like that, Miss Fluttershy.”
“Oh, it’s quite alright, Mister Lipton. I was just startled by your… appearance.”
Damon sipped dantley from his tea cup, which confused, intrigued and slightly horrified Fluttershy. She had woken up after fainting to find herself on her sofa with a blanket carefully over her, looking up she was surprised to see Damon in her kitchen, walking towards her with a tray holding two tea cups and a tea pot.
“That’s totally understandable, it’s not everyday you see a lich walking about is it?” Damon chuckled.
“Lich?” Fluttershy asked him.
Damon was about to tell her what a lich was, but stopped himself when he realised just how innocent Fluttershy was in his eyes and decided to spare her some of the details.
“Magical skeleton,” he simply said.
“Oh… I-I see, so you can use magic?” Fluttershy asked, taking a sip from her cup.
“Yes, I can. I’m a student of the Mages Council of Cyrium,” Damon replied proudly.
“I-I’m sorry, but where’s Cyrium?” She asked nervously.
Damon stroked his chin, trying to think of a way to reply without confusing the mare even further.
“Uhm… far, far away,” Damon replied.
“I see… more tea?” Fluttershy asked, lifting the tea pot up.
“Thank you,” he replied with a smile.
Fluttershy poured him another cup as she watched in fascination as he began to drink it, watching the brown liquid slide down his spine and disappear into his robes. She swallowed hard and decided to ask him a question that had been on her mind since they had started drinking tea, amongst other questions.
“Uhm… M-mister Damon? Could I-I ask you a question?”
“Sure, what is it?”
“Where… where does the tea go, you know, a-after you drink it…” she softly asked him.
Damon opened his mouth to reply but found no words for a reply, he closed his mouth, opened it again, closed it and then tilted his head up slightly as he stroked his chin in thought.
“Hmm… you know, that is a good question, I’m not entirely sure of it myself to be honest. I mean, so far I've managed to eat apples and drink tea like I would if I was still human.”
“Human?” She tilted her head at him.
“Bipedal creatures,” Damon explained briefly,” I’m sure you have bipedal creatures in this world right?”
“W-well… there are diamond dogs… they’re b-bipedal canines…”
“Well, picture that then but without the fur, ears or tail I suppose.”
Fluttershy nodded, getting an image in her head as he continued.
“But yes, to go back to your original question. I simply have no idea how I can eat or drink or where it goes for that matter, by normal logic I don’t really need to eat or drink as a lich…”
“What do y-you mean?”
“You’re quite inquisitive, aren't you, Miss Fluttershy?” Damon chuckled.
“O-oh, I’m s-sorry…” Fluttershy whimpered, “I-I didn’t mean to upset you…”
“No no no it’s okay, I was just teasing,” Damon quickly replied.
“Oh… okay,”
Damon stood up slightly and leant over to reach for a biscuit near Fluttershy, he sat back down and began to nibble as he continued again.
“Anyway, like I was saying-”
Before Damon could continue, the door to Fluttershy’s cottage burst open and off its hinges. Damon and Fluttershy quickly turned their heads to see what exactly was happening. In the doorway stood five other ponies, each with a look of anger and determination in their eyes.
Damon blinked** before giving a friendly wave to the group, some crumbs falling from his mouth.
“Oh hello there, are you friends of-”
Damon was interrupted as a blur of blue slammed into him face first, causing him to fall out of the chair and to the floor.
“Ow! My face!” Damon cried out.
“Don’t worry Shy! We’ll save you!” Rainbow shouted.
“What was that for!?” Damon shouted back, rubbing his face.
But… he’s not-” Fluttershy started.
“How dare you kidnap a mare you ruffian!” Rarity said through gritted teeth, interrupting Fluttershy.
“But-” Fluttershy started again.
“Now Twi’!” Applejack shouted.
“Right, Applejack!” She replied.
Before Damon or Fluttershy could say anything, Twilight’s horn glowed and Damon was tossed to one side, violently crashing into the far wall with a loud thud. As he groaned and rubbed his head, Fluttershy’s Element was levitated off Twilight and onto Fluttershy’s neck. The girls braced themselves, ready for the Elements to power up.
But nothing happened.
They looked to one another in confusion before seeing Fluttershy looking back at them looking angry.
“Just what do you think you are doing?” She demanded.
“Saving you from the monster?” Rainbow replied.
“What monster?” Fluttershy asked, “the only ones here are us and Mister Damon,”
“Who?” Applejack asked.
Fluttershy pointed with her hoof over at where Damon had been thrown.
“He’s Mister Damon,”
The girls looked at Damon as he sat on the ground against the wall, his head slowly rolling about. Fluttershy gasped and rushed to him in concern. The others looked at each other again in confusion, trying to process what exactly was going on.
“Are you ok, Mister Damon?” Fluttershy asked him.
“I’ll have the calamari…” Damon murmured.
Fluttershy turned back to the others, anger etched on her face and stomped over to them. As she began to argue with them over what Damon was actually doing, he shook his head and blinked a couple of times as he watched them argue.
“Why in the hay should we apologise to it?!” Rainbow demanded.
“Because you kicked him, Rainbow!” Fluttershy shouted back, her shy demeanor gone.
“But… he was trying to eat you!” Pinkie exclaimed.
“We were having tea and biscuits, that’s it.” Fluttershy replied.
“But Roseluck said he dragged you into your house,” Rarity said.
“Because I fainted in surprise when I saw him, his appearance is slightly... unsettling but he really is a nice guy!”
Damon nervously watched as the bickering increased, seeing this as an opportunity to skedaddle, he slowly rose to his feet and began to tiptoe his way to the door.
“Hey!” He heard the one called Rainbow yell, “where do you think you’re going?”
“Hey look! A three headed walrus!” Damon shouted suddenly in blind panic, pointing to his right.
“Huh?” Rainbow looked to where he was pointing.
The second she did so, he quickly cast a spell under his breath and smoke shot out from his mouth quickly filling the room and causing the girls to cough.
“It can use magic?!” Twilight shouted in alarm between coughs.
Twilight quickly regained her composure and cast a spell that quickly dispelled the smoke, leaving the six girls alone in the room. They looked around trying to see where Damon had gone before Pinkie bounced up and down pointing out of the door.
“There it is! It’s going into town!” She shouted with a grin.
“Oh no… if the town see it…” Twilight’s eyes widened, fearing how he would react to the town reacting to him, “we need to stop it!”
“Come on, we better get it before it causes more mayhem!” Rainbow said before shooting out the door after Damon.
“Right behind ya, Dash!” Applejack replied, running out the door.
Pinkie, Rarity and Twilight soon followed them, leaving Fluttershy by herself staring after them.
“But… he’s not evil…” She whispered before running after them.
“HOLD STILL SO I CAN PUMMEL YOU!”
“LIKE HELL I WILL!”
Damon ducked as Rainbow shot over him, narrowly missing him by mere inches. He threw his hand into the air in her direction and another small amount of earth ripped from the ground and shot towards her but also missed. Damon wasn’t trying to injure the mare, rather, try and deter her from chasing him, which wasn't working, and he continued to run down the path. By now he had come to the edge of the town and ponies left right and centre had started screaming and running in all directions, as he rolled out of the way of Rainbow trying to dive bomb him, he couldn’t help but feel the feeling of deja vu again.
‘This is just like with that crazy blue horse all over again!’ He thought to himself.
He quickly darted down an alleyway and slammed himself up against a wall, holding his breath as he prayed Rainbow didn’t spot him. He cringed as a gust of wind blasted him as a blue blur shot down the alleyway and disappeared, Damon waited a few minutes before he let go of the breath he was holding and slid down the wall.
“These bloody horses are crazy,” he muttered to himself, “damn you to Oblivion for sending me here Dorian…”
Damon slowly peeked his head out of the alleyway to see if the coast was clear, he could still see ponies running around in fear and screaming but they seemed more confused, as if they were trying to see where he was exactly in order to know in which direction to flee.
“Maybe… I can make it back to the forest and come up with a new plan…”
“Or ah could jus’ kick your sorry flank to manehatten and back!”
Damon spun on the spot and came face to face with the pony called Applejack, behind her was the pink one who was bouncing on the spot and the white unicorn who was giving him a nasty glare.
“Now jus’ give yerself up pal, you can’t take all of us on,” Applejack glared at him.
“What did I do exactly?!” He demanded, waving his arms dramatically, “all I did was eat some disgusting, worm infested apples and accidently give-”
“Hold up…” Applejack said, lowering her head down,”What did you jus’ say ‘bout mah apples?”
The two behind Applejack looked at each other, a sudden look of fear on their faces as they started to back up. Damon could feel the air around him suddenly go cold and a sense of dread filled him, and just like with the one called Luna, he had obviously made a terrible, terrible mistake.
“Uh… they were disgusting and worm ridden?” He replied without thinking.
Twilight looked around her frantically, as they had approached the town Rainbow had suggested they split up in order to try and find the creature quicker, at first Twilight was hesitant due to the fact it could use magic but reluctantly agreed. Rarity and Pinkie had gone to the east side of the town whilst Rainbow had remained in the air, Twilight had opted to cover the west side of the town with Applejack, but had split up with her in order to run back to the library to send an urgent message to the Princess.
“Where could it be?” She wondered aloud, “I’m sure that-”
She was interrupted as a loud crack resonated throughout the town followed by a high pitched scream, which was soon followed by the figure of the creature flying at great speed past her from an alleyway nearby and into another, followed by a loud crash as it obviously collided with something.
The chaos in the town stopped briefly as all eyes slowly turned towards the alleyway where the creature had shot out from to see a very angry Applejack storm out and barrel towards the other alleyway with Pinkie Pie and Rarity in tow.
“NOPONY TALKS BAD ‘BOUT MAH APPLES!” She roared.
“Applejack!” Twilight shouted, using her magic to grab the angry farm pony and stop her in her tracks, “what they hay do you think you’re doing!? You don’t know what it could do to you!”
“But it said that mah apples were disgustin’ and worm infested! And ah ain’t gunna let some poncy, skeletal thing get away with that!” Applejack snorted.
“But you don’t know what it’s capable of!” Twilight said, “you shouldn’t just run in like a bull in a china shop, Princess Celestia will be here soon to help us. I’m sure of it.”
Applejack gritted her teeth as she glared down the alleyway, then back to Twilight and let out a sigh.
“Alright Twi’, what do ya have in mind then?”
“We need to corner it somehow, I can then cast a bind spell on it to hold it safely whilst we wait for the Princess.”
“Alrighty then, how do ya wanna go about doing that?”
Before Twilight could speak, Rainbow Dash landed on the ground beside them just as Fluttershy, Pinkie and Rarity finally caught up to them.
“Sorry guys, I lost it. By the way, what was that scream just now? That wasn’t the thing was it?”
“Mhm! Applejack kicked him really hard after he said some mean things about her apples,” Pinkie replied.
“They ain’t disgustin’ or worm infested…” Applejack muttered.
Fluttershy winced slightly, she wanted to defend Damon but she knew Applejack and Pinkie would never lie about something like that. She began to wonder if Damon wasn’t what he appeared to be and decided to remain quiet for the time being.
“So, what do we do now then?” Rainbow asked.
“Twi’ has a plan,” Applejack replied.
“Well firstly, I was thinking that we could corner it but Applejack seems to have taken care of it by kicking it into that dead end alleyway,” Twilight started.
Applejack snorted as she continued.
“I then need you guys to keep it from getting out so I can channel my binding spell on it to prevent its escape before the Princess arrives.”
“Are you sure shes coming?” Rarity asked as the others looked to Twilight for reassurance.
“Well… I didn’t hang around for Spike to receive a reply,” Twilight admitted, “but I was very insistent on the urgency of the matter!”
This seemed to give the girls the reassurance they needed, after all, Celestia wouldn’t ignore a desperate cry for assistance from her personal student especially how recent the Nightmare Moon incident was.
“So, how do we got about this then, Twilight?” Rarity asked.
“Okay… this is the plan…”
Damon groaned as he got up from the now destroyed pile of crates he had slammed into, wincing as he placed a hand over his chest.
“I think I’ve broken something…” he winced.
Muttering under his breath, his hand glowed white as he slowly rubbed over where Applejack had kicked him and sharply inhaled through his teeth as the spell began to fix his injuries. Satisfied that he was somewhat healed for the time being, he slowly stood himself up and dusted himself down before realising he was trapped in the alley.
“Oh… bollocks…”
“U-uhm, M-mister Damon?”
He spun round to see Fluttershy by herself in the alleyway, looking concernedly at him.
“Oh, it’s just you, Miss Fluttershy,” Damon smiled and knelt down to her level, “you don’t know how nice it is to see a friendly face.”
He noticed Fluttershy wince at his words, some tears forming in the corner of her eyes.
“Miss Fluttershy?” He asked.
“I-I’m sorry…”
“Sorry? For what?”
He suddenly felt a rope binding around him tightly, causing him to wheeze as the air was squeezed out of him before being levitated into the air slightly. Damon looked down to see the rope being held onto by Applejack and the purple unicorn’s horn glowing, he realised that it was a trap and looked at Fluttershy with a mixture of betrayal and admiration for being willing bait as it were.
“Alright, we got it!” Rainbow smirked.
As the girls grinned in triumph and congratulated one another, Damon panicked and tried to break free of his bonds but stopped. If he got out, they would simply trap him again immediately and may possibly use more excessive force. Trying to think of a plan, he suddenly remembered a story that Kalanar had told him about his youth about how he had escaped capture and decided to just go with it.
“So…” Damon began, “it’s nice to know you are all racist bastards.”
The girls gasped and looked up at him in shock, Rarity glared at him with anger in her eyes.
“How dare you use such crude language in front of a lady such as moi, and how dare you accuse us of such a horrendous thing!”
“But it’s true,” Damon continued, “I mean, you all assumed I was evil right from the start. Did any of you stop for a moment and think, ‘hey, this guy seems to be alright, let’s get to know him!’ “
Fluttershy was about to raise her hoof in the air but decided it was best to keep quiet as Damon continued.
“But no, you automatically decided I was evil and try to kill me just because I’m different to you. You all sicken me...”
“But, we weren’t being racist to you, you started this!” Rainbow retorted.
“No… he’s right Dashie…” Pinkie sniffled, “we jumped to the wrong conclusion.”
“He kidnapped Fluttershy!” Applejack countered.
“I told you already…” Fluttershy sniffled, holding back her tears, “we were just having tea…”
“He’s just trying to trick you girls!” Twilight shouted, “he attacked Rainbow!”
“But only because Rainbow attacked him first,” Pinkie retorted.
“I hate to admit it, Twilight, but Pinkie is right. We did attack him first…” Rarity admitted, “we are racists…”
As the girls continued to argue over whether or not they were actually acting on a racist impulse, Damon used this as a distraction and quickly cancelled Twilight’s spell without removing the magic link so she wouldn’t notice the spell was being severed. He also cast a charm to keep the rope where it was, so Applejack wouldn’t notice the fact he had slipped out of it.
Carefully tiptoeing past the girls, thanking the fact they were so locked in their argument they didn’t pay attention to him, he snuck out of the alley before making a desperate dash for the far side of the town.
Princess Celestia landed in the centre of the town alongside Princess Luna and a few guards, watching as the ponies stopped running in fear and looked relieved to see the Princesses. Celestia and Luna were taken aback by the bombardment of shouts from the townsfolk.
“Monster!”
“Attacked the Elements!”
“Insulted Applejack’s apples!”
“The Horror!”
Celestia raised a hoof silencing them, she was about to ask what exactly was going on before she turned along with Luna, the guards and the other townsfolk towards an alleyway where loud shouting could be heard.
“We are NOT racists!”
“Yes we are!”
“Pinkie, no we are NOT!”
“Hey, where the hay did it go?!”
“Oh no, it got away, quickly girls!”
Twilight and the others rushed out and came to a screeching halt as the looked at the large crowd of ponies looking back at them somewhat confused.
“P-princess?!” Twilight spluttered.
“I think you need to tell me everything that happened, Twilight, from the beginning…”
Damon panted heavily as he leant against the tree, swallowing slightly and peeking out, he tried to see if he had been followed. Thankfully, he had managed to give them the slip and let out a sigh of relief.
“Finally… now I can figure out what to do…” he muttered.
He noticed that the park he had run into was deserted, no doubt the ponies who had been in the park had run away after hearing of a ‘monster’ attacking the town. He thanked the gods that it was deserted and decided to take a quick stroll to clear his mind in order to try and work out what to do next, paying close attention to any new sounds as to not get taken by surprise should he be discovered.
“All these horses are bloody crazy, well... maybe not Miss Fluttershy I mean, she did seem nice up until they tried to bind me.” he spoke aloud.
Damon sighed as he continued walking deeper into the park, crossing his arms behind his back and looking to the ground.
“Maybe I should try some more experiments on what I can and can’t do as… a… lich.”
He came to a sudden stop as he suddenly realised something, something fairly important in his new form.
“If I’m a lich… that means I have a… oh… Gods… what the hell did Dorian put it into?!”
Damon began to panic slightly as he resumed his pace, bringing his hands together and tapping his fingers against one another.
‘Oh no, this is terrible! I need to find my phylactery, how could I have been so stupid and forgot about that!? Curse you to hell Dorian!”
“Hey, so you’re the one causing the ruckus I take it?”
He shot his head back at the sudden voice, freezing slightly as he wheeled on the spot to see a pink pony with a mulberry coloured mane sitting on a bench like a human would, she had a picture of a strawberry and grapes on her flank and she was looking at Damon with interest.
There was a brief silence as Damon flinched and closed his eyes, bracing himself for another scream or for another attack. Carefully opening his eyes, he looked over to the pony who was looking back at him in confusion.
“You okay?” She asked him.
“Uh… well not really, I’ve not exactly had what you would call the greatest day, you know?” Damon replied.
“Tell me about it,”
She smiled at him and patted the spot beside her, out of curiosity, Damon slowly made his way over to the spot and sat himself down and leant back.
“So, wanna talk about it?” The mare asked.
“It’s a long story…” Damon muttered in response.
“Well, my daughter is at her godmothers for the weekend and I don’t really have anything else planned tonight so I got time,” she replied with a smile.
Damon was about to insist he was fine but saw the genuine concern and interest in the mares eyes and sighed to himself, he tilted his head back and looked up into the sky before replying.
“Well… alright then, it started when I was writing a report...”
“You mean… he isn’t a threat Princess?” Rainbow asked.
The girls had just finished telling Celestia and Luna what had happened that day, during this, the guards had spread out trying to find any information on where Damon had run off to.
“Yes, Rainbow Dash, I looked into his soul and couldn’t detect any signs of evil from him. Granted his appearance suggests otherwise, he is harmless.”
“But it kidnapped Fluttershy!” Applejack said.
“I’ve told you already girls…” Fluttershy started, “I was just surprised by him, he made me some tea and we had a chat. That’s all.”
“But he attacked me!” Rainbow protested, “and called us racist bast-”
Rainbow was silenced by a tug on her tail from Applejack before she could swear in front of the Princess
“Oh? And who attacked who first?” Celestia asked, raising her eyebrow.
“Well… we may have attacked him first…” Rainbow admitted.
“So is it safe to say, that Damon acted in self defence?” Celestia continued.
“Ah guess so…” Applejack replied, “but he insulted mah apples!”
“Yes, as I’ve heard but tell me, Applejack. Is it possible that he had taken a bite out of an apple that did have a worm in it? Thus, putting him off the other apples?”
“You… have ah point Princess… ah guess ah just got over protective of mah families pride and joy…”
Celestia nodded, happy with Applejack and Rainbow’s admission.
“And Twilight, I specifically said in my first scroll he was not a threat. And now because of you and your friends recklessness, he’s missing and probably terrified,” she scolded.
Twilight shrank down slightly as her ears lowered.
“I’m sorry Princess… I just thought that…”
“It’s not me you need to apologise to Twilight,” Celestia sighed, “I know your intentions were good, but you girls need to apologise to Damon when we find him.”
The girls nodded, feeling ashamed and guilty at what they had done.
“That goes for you too Luna,” Celestia said, turning to her sister who had remained quiet.
“I know, Tia, I know…” Luna pouted.
“Princess!” A guard saluted her, “an eye witness claims that Damon headed to the park not too long ago.”
“Thank you Sergeant,” Celestia said before turning to the girls, “now lets go find Damon and sort this mess out properly.”
“... And now I have no clue what he’s put my life force into, liches are meant to chose for themselves but that bastard Dorian probably did it for me and neglected to tell me where or what it is!”
Damon sighed as he finished his rant, the mare looked at him with pity and gently patted him on the back.
“Thanks… it’s good to vent you know?” He smiled at her.
“No problem,” she replied.
“But I have to ask, why haven't you freaked out over me like the others?”
“Dunno, you seem like an alright guy to me,” she shrugged lazily and smiled at him.
“Thanks, that means a lot,” he smiled at her.
The two sat in silence for a while as they let a cool breeze blow over them and listened to the rustling of the trees before the mare spoke up again.
“You know what you need?”
“What?”
“A drink!”
“You know… that’s not a bad idea at all! Wait… as in… booze?” Damon asked,
“Of course booze!” she replied, “I know this great tavern by the edge of town where they don’t judge anypony, pony, griffin, minotaur doesn't matter what you are, everpony is welcome there.”
Damon silently thanked all the known Gods that this world had alcohol as the mare got down of the bench before sheepishly looking back at him
“Oh, I didn’t get your name,”
“I’m Damon, Damon Lipton,”
“Cool name, I’m Berry Punch,” she replied.
“Alright, nice to meet you, lead the way!”
Berry grinned as she and Damon walked side by side down the pathway, heading towards the tavern near the edge of the town.
The Adventures of Damon Lipton Chapter V - Drunken Lullabies
Celestia was beginning to get more concerned with each passing minute, it’d grown dark by now and she, Luna and the Elements had gone back to the library whilst her guards had gone to search for Damon. Her main concern was that she couldn’t detect his magical signature anymore and had no idea where he could have gone, they had scoured every inch of the park earlier on to no avail and no one in the town had seemed to have seen where he had gone after the Princesses arrived.
Twilight watched as Celestia gazed out of the window and lowered her head in shame, beside her were the other Elements who also were looking miserable, more so Fluttershy and Pinkie. Fluttershy had only just stopped crying over the fact she had betrayed Damon’s trust and Pinkie was still down about the fact she might be racist.
“I’m worried about Damon…”
“But why?” Luna asked, “I’m sure he can take care of himself.”
“That’s just it, Luna, I know he can but I’m worried about how he now feels towards ponies in general. I mean, we need to remember that he isn’t from this world.”
Luna and the others looked at her slightly unsure as to what she meant, Celestia rolled her eyes and sighed.
“We didn’t give him a friendly reception, you tried to kill him, Luna,” Celestia said, “twice.”
Luna winced slightly as Celestia continued.
“And you girls, you over reacted towards him and attacked him.”
The girls once again looked to the floor in shame.
“And even I am not without fault, I nearly vaporized him because I thought he was a demon when all he was doing was telling me his name,” Celestia finished
There was a silence that lingered over the whole library, Spike came down the stairs letting out a loud yawn that caught the attention over everyone present.
“Spike? Have you been asleep this whole time?” Twilight asked.
Spike shrugged and scratched his stomach.
“Well, yeah,” he started, “after you teased me I went upstairs and read some comics and decided to have a nap.”
Twilight rolled her eyes and shook her head, Spike then noticed both Celestia and Luna in the room and grinned.
“Oh hey Princess Celestia and Luna, what are you doing here?” He asked.
“Hello, Spike, it’s good to see you,” Celestia smiled, “we are here because of the incident about Damon.”
“Who? The skeleton guy?”
Everyone looked at Spike with slight confusion as to how he knew who Damon was.
“Yes… how… how did you know?” Celestia asked.
“Well, I looked out my window earlier and saw you guys chasing him down the road, and man did he look frightened.”
At his words, the Elements cringed again.
“Well… we thought he was a monster,” Twilight sheepishly said.
“Monster? How could you think that?” Spike smacked his forehead, “firstly, the Princess said not to treat him like a threat and secondly, you live with a dragon!”
Twilight cringed at his words, although Spike was a baby, he was still a dragon. A fearsome race and she knew he would grow to look terrifying in some ponies eyes.
“We know, we know…” Twilight started, “and we do regret it, but now we can’t find him to apologise.”
“I don’t blame him if he’s run away or is hiding from you all,” Spike said, “I’d have done the same if I didn’t have you guys as friends…”
Twilight winced again as Spike headed back upstairs, since arriving in town she had gotten wind that some of the ponies had initially been terrified of Spike because he was a dragon and would often give him looks when he was with Twilight in the town.
Before Twilight could say anything, there was a knock on the door and a guard walked in, giving Celestia and Luna a salute.
“Your highness, we’ve got a witness who saw where Damon went.”
“Really? Where is this witness?” Celestia asked as the group looked at the guard in hope.
“Well… that’s just it Princess… the witness… he... well…”
A belch interrupted him as a drunken stallion wobbled in with a goofy happy expression on his face, Rarity looked at the stallion in horror as the others stared in confusion.
“Holy shit… I drank so much,” he stopped and hicupped, “I’m seeing Princess Celyesiah and… and… Princess... Princess...uh...”
“Luna,” the guard whispered.
“Gesundheit,” the stallion replied with a wave of his hoof.
Luna and the guard slapped their foreheads as Celestia resisted the urge to giggle.
“Rest assured, dear subject. I am very real,” Celestia smiled at him.
“No kiddin’?” The stallion slurred with a hiccup.
“Indeed, now, you have information on the location of Damon?”
“Sure do!” The stallion hiccuped and swayed, “bone man can ssssssssure sing and dance!”
The others looked at each other in confusion as the stallion continued.
“Anywho” he hiccuped, “bone man is over at the tavern, putting ol’ Berreh Panch to shame.”
“Thank you, you have been a great help,” Celestia nodded and smiled at the stallion.
“Heeeeeey,” he slurred, “I heard that... Alicorns…. are genderless, that true?,” the stallion giggled as he was led out the door by a guard as Celestia and Luna lightly blushed.
“Sister… should we have somepony make sure he gets home ok? I don’t think we should let him go off on his own,” Luna asked.
“You have a point…” Celestia replied, motioning to another one of her guards, “sergeant, make sure he gets home ok.”
“Yes, Your Highness,” the sergeant replied, slightly annoyed.
As the guard left the building, Celestia turned to the others.
“Let’s make our way over there now,” Celestia said, thankful that it seemed Damon was ok.
“Princess, how should we go about this?” Twilight asked.
The girls and two Princesses, accompanied by a few guards, made their way through the near empty town of Ponyville. Several ponies watched with curiosity as they watched their two rulers and the essential protectors of their kingdom walk through the town, several of them decided to follow behind the group, letting their curiosity get the better of them. This had worried Twilight slightly as she wasn’t sure how Damon might react if practically the entire town suddenly appeared and might mistake it for something else given the days events, and another confrontation mishap was something she was desperate to avoid.
“I shall enter first, followed by Luna, and then you girls once I say you can,” Celestia started, “Lieutenant, you and the others shall remain outside, so we won’t give the wrong impression to Damon as well as keeping the rest of the town out of the tavern until we are ready.”
“Very well you highness,” the lieutenant nodded.
“Is that wise?” Rarity asked, “not that I’d ever disagree with you, Princess. But given today's events, wouldn’t Damon react badly to seeing us again?”
“She has a point there…” Applejack agreed.
“Don’t worry,” Celestia smiled, “that is why I’m going in first, to reassure him of our intentions.”
Seemingly satisfied with that reply, the group continued to make its way through the town and soon came to the edge of it. Laying directly ahead of them was the local tavern, ‘The Merry Mare’, and they could all hear the sound of muffled music as well as loud singing, laughter and general merriment .
As they came to the building, the guards set up a makeshift cordon to keep the other townsfolk from entering as Luna and the girls stopped, watching Celestia approach the tavern. No sooner had she entered, she quickly re emerged with the biggest smile on her face.
“Okay… this you have to see,” she giggled.
Curiously, Luna and the girls approached her and followed her into the tavern and their jaws dropped at what they saw, causing Celestia to burst into laughter.
“Now do you think he is still a monster and a threat?” She asked.
They stared up at the figure of Damon who was standing on a large wooden table with the entire tavern of ponies, griffons, a couple of diamond dogs and minotaurs and some black bug creatures. He was swaying about with a wooden tankard in his right hand and was quite clearly somewhat drunk, what made them even more confused and surprised was the fact that one of the ponies from the town who they recognized as Berry Punch, was sitting on his shoulders and was also wearing his hood and cloak and had a tankard in her hoof.
The girls jumped slightly as the other patrons in the room suddenly shouted the last two lines Damon sung.
“What savior rests while on his cross we die
Forgotten freedom burns
Has the shepherd led his lambs astray
To the bigot and the gun,”
“Must it take a life for hateful eyes,
To glisten once again.”
Damon briefly paused before the whole tavern and Berry sang along with him.
"Cause we find ourselves in the same old mess,
Singin’ drunken lullabies!”
The girls and Luna tried to find words to try and comprehend what they were watching exactly as the band continued to play and Damon took another swig from his tankard, Celestia was laughing and smiling as she watched the dancing skeleton man as Berry happily held his head with a grin on her face.
“Ah gotta tell yah, Princess,” a voice said, “at first we thought he was pretty odd looking, but I ain’ ever seen the Merry Mare this upbeat and happy.”
Celestia and the others turned to see a stallion with a tankard as his cutie mark, realising he was the barkeep, looking towards Damon with a smile on his face as Damon let out a contented sigh and continued to sing, all the while gently swaying.
“I watch and stare as Rosin’s eyes,
Turn a darker shade of red,
And the bullet with this sniper lie,
In their bloody gutless cell.”
“Must we starve on crumbs from long ago,
Through these bars of men made steel,
Is it a great or little thing we fought,
Knelt the conscience blessed to kill.”
“Must it take a life for hateful eyes,
To glisten once again.”
Damon briefly paused again before the whole tavern once again loudly sang along with him.
“Cause we find ourselves in the same old mess,
Singin’ drunken lullabies!”
Damon continued to then sing by himself, looking at each individual randomly as he did.
“Ah, but maybe it’s the way you were taught,
Or maybe it’s the way we fought,
But a smile never grins without tears to begin,
For each kiss is a cry we all lost.”
He quickly inhaled before carrying on.
“Though there is nothing left to gain,
But for the banshee that stole the grave,"
Celestia swore to herself that she saw Damon smirk as, like before, the whole tavern joined in knowingly as did Celestia which startled the girls and Luna.
“Cause we find ourselves in the same old mess,
Singin’ drunken lullabies!”
As Damon stopped singing and the band played a solo part that consisted mainly of the banjo and violin, he waved his now empty tankard, followed by Berry who did the same, and both were levitated out of their grips by the barkeep who was more than happy to levitate them both another couple of tankards, that were full and waiting on the counter filled with cider. Damon and Berry then clanked their tankards together before they took a several swigs, finishing their drinks with a contented sigh and the barkeep swapped the empty tankards for full ones again. Once more they clanked them together and took a large swig, both laughing for a moment before Damon continued the song.
“I sit and dwell on faces past,
Like memories seem to fade,
No colour left but black and white
And soon will all turn grey.”
“But may these shadows rise to walk again,
With lessons truly learnt,
When the blossom flowers in each our hearts,
Shall beat a new found flame.”
Just like with before, the patrons sang out the last two words Damon sang, including Celestia and now Pinkie Pie who had joined in with a massive grin.
“Must it take a life for hateful eyes,
To glisten once again.”
The girls knew exactly what was going to happen the second those words came out of his mouth, and on cue, the whole tavern including Celestia and Pinkie who were clearly enjoying themselves joined in with Damon.
“Cause we find ourselves in the same old mess,
Singin’ drunken lullabies!”
“Cause we find ourselves in the same old mess,
Singin’ drunken lullabies!”
“Singin’ drunken lullabies!”
The second he finished, Damon clanked his tankard with Berry and they both downed their drinks as the band came to a finish, the tavern erupted into applause as they cheered Damon who belched along with Berry and both began to laugh and he took a few bows whilst she held on tightly with agrin.
Celestia smiled and applauded Damon along with Pinkie as the others simply stared at the spectacle, on one hand they were slightly confused as to what was going on and how long before they had arrived had it been going on for and on the other, they were beginning to question whether or not Damon was as horrific as they first thought he was. The barkeep chuckled seeing their confused looks and began to wipe the counter as Damon stumbled off the table, falling flat on his face as Berry rolled off his back and managed to wrap herself into a ball with his cloak, giggling as she did.
“In all my years… I have never seen anything like that before…” Luna whispered, shaking her head.
The bar began to wind down towards closing, most of the patrons had left, still singing lines from Damon’s song as well as others he had sung before the arrival of the girls. Damon was laying on a table softly sleeping with Berry Punch on his chest, hugging him tightly with his cloak wrapped around her like a duvet, a happy smile on her face.
Celestia and the others were sitting at the bar conversing with the barkeep, Celestia and Luna both had a glass of water, Applejack and Rainbow had a tankard of Cider each, Rarity had a fancy looking cocktail, Twilight had a mug of coffee and Pinkie and Fluttershy had a glass of water each. Fluttershy because she didn’t drink alcohol, and Pinkie because the girls were concerned about what a alcohol fueled Pinkie would be like, much to her disappointment.
“So, you say he cast a charm over the band so they were able to play the music he sang?” Celestia asked.
“Aye, at first we were all slightly unsure to his motives but Miss Berry reassured us he was harmless, and Miss Berry is a good friend of mine so I had no reason to distrust her,” the barkeep replied, “and for the past four hours he’s drinkin’ enough to knock out a minotaur, a feat might I add is impressive in itself, and been entertainin’ everybody with his singing.”
“I see,” Celestia said, glancing over the two sleeping bodies.
“Ah still can’t believe we thought he was a monster…” Applejack chuckled, taking a sip, “he does seem pretty harmless.”
“I must agree with you, Applejack,” Rarity titters, “even if his attire is something he needs to work on.”
“Trust you, Rarity,” Rainbow laughed, “new creature from a different world and the only thing you can think of is his clothing,”
“She does have a point,” Twilight added with a giggle, “it does seem oddly cliche.”
“Oh and what are you going to do then, Twilight, ask him a series of questions?” Rarity huffed in response, “next you’ll be telling me Pinkie will be throwing him a party!”
“Well, duh! Of course I am silly, it’s what I do in all the stories!”
“What stories?” Rarity asked.
Pinkie just giggled as she took a gulp of her water, Rarity shaking her head and dismissing her.
“So… should we apologize to him now or wait till he wakes up?” Fluttershy asked Celestia.
“I think it would be best, Tia, if we did wait till tomorrow. It’ll give Damon a chance to sober up and fully take on board what we will be discussing with him,” Luna replied.
“Indeed, we will return to Canterlot though, Luna and return tomorrow… now we just need to find a place for him to stay for the night,” Celestia replied, glancing back over to the pair.
“Well, he can’t stay with me,” Rainbow said, “I have no clue if he can walk on clouds.”
“And ah can’t have ‘im at tha farm, he might give poor Applebloom and Granny Smith a fright,” Applejack frowned.
“And as for me,” Rarity said, “I’m not sure how dear Sweetie Belle will react.”
“Um… my animals might be a little scared by him…” Fluttershy whispered.
“Oh! Oh! Oh! He can stay with me!” Pinkie grinned.
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea, Pinkie,” Twilight replied, “he may give Mrs Cake a scare and that might cause distress to her unborn foals…”
Pinkie’s mane flattened slightly but returned to normal as she understood why having a five and a half foot skeletal creature stay with her might be a bad idea.
“And I don’t think Spike is quite ready to meet him yet,” Twilight sheepishly grinned, “that, and I don’t have a room ready for him…”
“Oh? This isn’t because you feel guilty that you were the lead on his attack at Fluttershy's home, and the one who masterminded the plan to capture him?” Celestia smirked.
Twilight laughed nervously then lowered her head in shame, it was then that they all heard a loud coughing and turned round to see Damon standing behind them with Berry in his arms, still asleep and wrapped in his cloak, swaying a little bit.
“Actually… if it’s all the same to you,” he slurred, “Berry’s offered to let me sleep at hers tonight.”
“Is that so?” Celestia asked.
“Mhm! Damon’s gunna be my new BRFF!” Berry declared waking up.
The girls looked at her confused as she rolled her eyes.
“Best roommate friend forever?” She slurred.
They all gave a nod of understanding as Berry giggled and yawned loudly, snuggling herself back into the cloak and closing her eyes again.
“But what about her daughter?” Rarity asked.
“Ah, her daughter stays with her Godmother every so often and tonight’s one of those days,” the barkeep replied.
“And besides,” Twilight added, “We’d have Damon settled in by the time she got home I’d reckon anyway.”
“Then it’s settled then, Damon will remain in Ponyville until tomorrow so we can discuss properly when he is sober what shall happen,” Celestia said.
“One request,” Damon hiccuped.
“And that is?” She asked.
“I want to stay with Berry,” he slurred, “I like Berry, Berry’s cool.”
“Uhm… Damon, dear?” Rarity said, “we already decided that you were going to stay with her.”
“We did?”
“Yes.”
“Huh… awesome! There’s just one problem…” Damon said.
“And that is?” Applejack asked.
“I don’t want to wake her… and I don’t know where she lives.”
Applejack sighed and got down from the counter and headed for the door.
“Come on girls, we better help ‘im get to her house.”
The rest of the girls got down and followed suit, Twilight quickly exchanged a hug and farewell with Celestia and agreed on meeting Damon again in the morning at the library. The girls watched as Celestia and Luna left with their guards, who had been waiting patiently for their return and headed back to Canterlot and begun to lead Damon towards Berry’s home.
“Tia, are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Luna asked.
As the first sun rays shone down through the window and penetrated the small gap between the curtains, Damon groaned and slowly sat up as the room spun slightly, looking around the room. Whilst trying to figure out where he was, he noticed he was in a bedroom and had slept on a fairly medium sized bed, he then noticed the second bed in the room with him that had been untouched, figuring he was in some form of guest room.
Groaning in pain as the full effect of his hangover suddenly made itself known to him, he rose up from the bed and stumbled to the doorway, trying to keep his balance. He noticed that he was also not wearing his cloak or hood and tried to remember where it was. Grumbling as he failed to think of where it was, he then stumbled down the hallway walking past a bedroom with the words ‘Pinchy’s room, Keep out!’ and came to the top of some stairs.
“Ok… nice and easy now…” he muttered.
He carefully lifted his right foot up to take his first step, only to miss the step and trip over himself and crashed down the stairs whilst shouting every curse he knew in various languages. With a loud smack as he hit the floor of the stairs, he groaned again and slowly rose to his feet, clicking his dislocated jaw back into place before heading down the hallway.
Damon caught the smell of something cooking and his stomach growled loudly as he decided to follow the smell, he soon came to a kitchen where he saw Berry Punch at the table with a mug of what appeared to be tea and a plate that had toast and eggs on it. She was conversing with another pony who was blue and had an hourglass on her flank, who, as Damon entered, looked up at him with no surprise in her eyes which confused him and then turned to Berry.
“Huh… guess you weren't kidding, I owe you 10 bits.”
“Morning, Damon,” Berry smiled, “I made you breakfast.”
She pointed to a plate of toast and eggs in front of an empty spot at the table, he smiled and pulled the chair back with a screech, causing him to wince as his head throbbed.
“Thanks…”
“Hungover?” she giggled.
“Like you wouldn’t believe it…” Damon muttered, “makes me wish I had the fortitude of a Dwarf now…”
“A what?”
“Small humanoid, loud, annoying, live underground and can easily drink their own body weight ten fold in alcohol before they even get drunk.”
“I see…” Berry replied.
“How come you’re not hungover?” Damon grumbled, taking a bite of toast as the other pony watched in fascination.
“Oh, I’ve never really gotten them. Not sure why,” she replied.
“Lucky mare…”
“Oh I nearly forgot, Damon, this is a dear friend of mine and my daughter’s Godmother, Colgate. Colgate, Damon.”
“Charmed,” Damon nodded to her.
“Likewise, I must say I was a little sceptical at first about the whole ‘I’m putting up a drunken skeleton from another world’ Berry told me about, but weirder things have happened. Beautiful teeth by the way,”
“Uh… thanks?” Damon replied, sipping some tea.
There was a brief silence as the three continued to eat their meals as Damon took a bite from his toast before he turned to Berry, realising something.
“Do… you know where my cloak is?” He said with his mouth full.
“No talking with your mouth full,” Berry said, giving his hand a light smack.
“Ow!” He mumbled as Colgate giggled before swallowing, “do you know where my cloak is?”
“I AM THE NIGHT!” A voice cried to his right.
Damon heard the sound of tiny hoofsteps coming from the hallway, he turned to look before being tackled by a blur of blue and falling onto his back. Blinking in confusion he looked up to see a small, pink filly, wearing his cloak and hood despite it nearly consuming the filly with the size ratio grinning down at him.
“Pinchy Punch!” Berry shouted, “get off Damon this instant!”
“But muuuuuuuuuuuuuuum!” Pinchy whined, “I am the night…”
“Pinchy…” Berry said sternly.
“Fine!” Pinchy pouted,
She was about to get off before Damon grinned and picked her up, startling her with a squeak as he cackled loudly.
“My plan was a success!” Damon cackled, “with her back turned by my cleverly timed distraction, the super mare known only as ‘The hooded’... uhm…”
“The hooded shadow!” Pinchy shouted.
“The hooded shadow!” Damon copied, “I have successfully captured her thus bringing the world to its knees with my power! Mwahaha!”
“You’ll never get away with this!” Pinchy giggled, before squirming in his grip, “you forget about my super strength!”
Damon gasped as he placed Pinchy on the ground, pretending she had broken free of his grip.
“Drat! You may of won this round, Hooded Shadow! But I will return!” Damon cackled.
“Not if I capture you first, Skeletal Overlord!”
Pinchy giggled as she began to chase Damon around the table as Colgate and Berry watched with smiles on their faces, they were at first slightly shocked by the display but they couldn’t help but feel happy watching the two play. Soon Damon pretended to get captured by Pinchy and surrendered to the ‘authorities’, a one detective Berry and Colgate, before being told to go brush her teeth, seeing as she had already eaten, and get ready for school.
“A skeleton who can hold their own with their drink against Berry and is good with foals, where did you find him Berry?” Colgate giggled.
“In the park, being chased by the Elements of Harmony claiming he was evil,” Berry replied, sipping her tea.
Colgate blinked, looked to Damon, then back at Berry, then back to Damon before bursting out laughing.
“Oh, that is priceless! I had heard there was an ‘evil monster’ running amok but, it was Damon? Man, the ponies in this town sure overreact to everything don’t they?”
Berry giggled as the three finished their breakfast and it wasn’t long before Pinchy returned from brushing her teeth, Colgate then offered to walk with Berry to the school and Damon decided he would tag along before he and Berry would go to the library to meet with the Princesses.The local mailmare, Derpy, had brought them a reminder note from Twilight reminding them about the meeting.
“Mister Damon…” Pinchy started, “can I wear your cloak to school? Everypony would be so jealous!”
“I’m afraid not, Pinchy, I need to look my best for the meeting with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna,” Damon frowned seeing Pinchy’s saddened expression, “however… wouldn't it be cooler to arrive at school riding atop a new creature the likes your classmates have never seen before?”
Pinchy gasped before giggling in excitement as Damon knelt down and popped her on his shoulders, Pinchy using her front legs to hold on tightly to his head.
“Onward! All skeletal transportation vessel!” She declared.
“Aye aye cap’n!” Damon replied, giving an over exaggerated salute by sticking his hand up, twirling it three times before saluting properly.***
Berry giggled as Damon began to make boat noises as Pinchy giggled whilst directing him towards the school, as they walked through the town, ponies left right and centre watched in confusion and curiosity as the Pinchy guided Damon made its way towards the school with Berry and Colgate in hot pursuit.
Damon made whooshing sounds as he swayed right and left, Berry and Colgate giggled and played along by making sounds of catapults being fired.
“Oh no! Watch out!” Pinchy cried, pointing to an imaginary projectile.
“Say the word, Cap’n and I’ll activate the emergency temporal teleportation!” Damon replied.
“Do it!”
Berry and Colgate gasped as suddenly Damon and Pincy vanished in a flash of light, before being hearing a sound behind them.
“FIRE THE PINCHY ROCKET!” Pinchy shouted.
Berry and Colgate turned to see at the last second, Damon throwing Pinchy at them, who let out a war cry and tackled her mother and Godmother into the ground whilst giggling along with them. Damon chuckled as the three ponies lay together giggling, oblivious to the others watching them, shocked at the sudden teleportation spell Damon used.
“Ok, ok enough playing now we’re nearly at the school,” Berry giggled.
“Awww,” Damon and Pinchy said in unison, much to the amusement of Berry and Colgate.
As the crowd of fillies and colts rushed into the school, saying goodbye to their parents as they did so. Pinchy gave Berry and Colgate a hug before giving a hug to Damon, much to the shock and confusion from the other parents.
“Will you be here to pick me up later with mummy, Mister Damon?” Pinchy asked.
“Sure, don’t see why not,” Damon replied with a smile, ruffling her mane.
Pinchy giggled as she rushed off to join her friends, a small light purple filly with a blonde mane as well as three others, one with a white coat with a pink and purple mane, one with an orange coat and purple mane and one with a yellow coat and a red mane with a bow attached.
After watching the fillies and colts enter the school building, Colgate said goodbye to Berry with a hug and to Damon with a handshake before she left to go to work. Damon and Berry then began to walk back through the town towards the library, discussing various, if not random, topics. They soon came to the library and Damon stopped in front of it and gave it a look over.
“A tree?” He said aloud, “the Elves would love her.”
“The who?” Berry asked.
“Arrogant, stuck up, pointy eared, tree hugging humanoids. My Master was one of them.” Damon briefly explained.
“I see,” Berry nodded,
The two stood in front of the door for what seemed like minutes, Berry looked at Damon who was clearly showing signs of hesitation by having one of his hands clearly in a fist for knocking, but close to his chest.
“Want me to knock?” Berry asked.
“Yes, very much so,” Damon replied.
Berry walked up to the door and knocked three times before taking a step back and waited, they waited for a while before the door was opened revealing Spike standing there.
“Yes? Oh, hey Berry, what brings you-” Spike stopped seeing Damon and his eyes went wide and he gasped.
Damon braced himself for a scream but instead watched as the little dragon ran up to him and looked him up and down, a huge grin on his face.
“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh! Twilight told me you’d be coming round but told me to stay in my room but I didn’t want to so I snuck downstairs just now when she went into the kitchen with the others then you knocked and its you and I can’t believe it you're like something from one of my comics. You’re. So. AWESOME!” Spike said in one breath.
Damon blinked as he let the words sink into his head before shaking his head.
“Thanks, not every time you get complimented by a dragon. Usually they tend to be stuck up, pompous and think everyone who isn’t a templar or paladin is trying to steal their horde.”
He knelt down and let Spike examine his hands and lowered his hood so Spike could see his skull, chuckling as the dragon’s eyes widened with fascination.
“Spike! Why’s the front door open? I told you to-”
Twilight appeared in the doorway and saw Damon, her eyes widening slightly before seeing Spike on his shoulder, examining his skull.
“Spike! I said wait upstairs!”
“But, no one went to answer the door! That was a little bit rude, so I answered it for you. Just because you guys are hesitant about this meeting does not excuse rudeness.”
“Yes, Twilight, how very rude of you,” Damon tutted, shaking his head along with Spike who was also tutting before they both burst out laughing.
Twilight’s eyes twitched slightly as Berry held back the urge to giggle herself.
“Just get in here! The Princesses will be here soon.”
Berry entered first followed by Damon with Spike sitting on his shoulder, the pair still snickering as Twilight closed the door behind them. Damon looked around the library, seeing all the shelves containing books and placed his hands on his hips.
“Huh…” he said softly.
What? Something wrong with my library?” Twilight asked in a huff.
“Actually, quite the opposite. The library back in the temple was bland and boring, but you’ve made it fit with the tree in terms of how the shelves move around it, very impressive.” Damon replied.
“Oh… thank you?” Twilight blinked.
“Hey, Damon you want a drink?” Spike asked, hopping down from his shoulder.”
“Alight, tea would be nice, Master Spike,” Damon gave a low, over exaggerated bow,
Spike grinned, heading into the kitchen and passing the other Elements as he did. They all saw Damon and smiled nervously at him.
“Morning ladies!” Damon cheerfully said.
“Good morning, Damon,” Rarity replied.
Rainbow Dash simply nodded as Applejack tipped her hat, both still a little nervous about the meeting. Fluttershy remained quite, looking away from Damon with shame. Damon looked to Berry with confusion.
“She alright?”
Berry simply shrugged as Damon muttered to himself and took a seat on the sofa, ignoring the confused looks from the other girls. He sat on a cushion that squeaked, something he knew a cushion didn't do and upon inspecting the cushion he let out a startled yelp as Pinkie grinned back up at him
“Hiya, Bones!” She giggled,
“Bones?” He asked.
“Mhm, it’s your nickname!” She replied
“Alright, I’ll go with it for now,” Damon replied, wondering how he hadn’t noticed her there.
Berry took the seat next to him, sandwiching Damon between herself and Pinkie as a slight awkward silence reigned over the group. Damon began to twiddle his boney thumbs as he went back to looking over the room, soon Spike reentered the room carrying a tray of tea.
“Tea’s up everpony!” Spike said.
As the girls thanked him and took their cups, Damon blinked at him before looking at Twilight.
“So… Spike’s a baby dragon.”
“Yes?”
“Why is he acting like a butler?” He’s just a kid!”
“Well… he is my number one assistant,” Twilight proudly stated.
“The best there is!” Spike added.
Damon went to argue, but Berry saw it coming and placed a hoof on his leg, he looked down at her and she shook her head and he reluctantly signed. As the girls quietly chatted to one another, Damon sipped his tea as Berry spoke to Spike who was asking her questions about him. Soon they heard the sound of a chariot landing and several stallions talking before there was a knock on the door, Spike quickly went and opened it revealing a stallion in royal armor.
“Announcing the arrival of their majesties, the Princesses Celestia and Luna and Prince Blueblood.”
Twilight’s eyes widened as her pupils shrank and Rarity gasped loudly before immediately fussing with her appearance.
“O-okay,” Twilight replied nervously.
“You okay Twi?” Applejack asked.
As Celestia and Luna got off their chariot, speaking quietly to Blueblood who was nodding intently, Twilight quickly rushed over to her friends.
“This is bad, when I lived in Canterlot, all I would ever heard about Prince Blueblood was that he was rude, arrogant, chauvinistic and was somewhat racists to anything non pony. I just know something bad is going to happen because of Blueblood...” Twilight replied.
“A bit like you guys?” Damon teased, receiving a light bop from Berry.
“Oh come now, Twilight, they were probably just rumours you know how some ponies can be,” Rarity started, “I’m sure he isn’t all that bad,”
Rarity sighed happily as Spike pouted and went into the kitchen in a huff, before anything else was said, Princess Celestia and Luna entered the building. The girls all bowed to them as did Damon and the Princesses smiled back at them.
“Come now my little ponies, there is no need to bow,” Celestia giggled, “and good morning to you, Damon, I trust you slept well?”
“Aside from the hangover? Pretty good thank you,” Damon replied.
“Princess?” Twilight called to her, “can I speak with you a second?”
Celestia walked over to Twilight as Luna began to make small talk with Damon and the girls, leaning down to Twilight’s head, sensing she had something urgent to discuss.
“Yes my faithful student?”
“With respect, why did you bring Blueblood? You know what everpony says about him! He might over react and offended Damon, he might cause Damon to get angry and attack, he might-”
Twilight was silenced by Celestia’s hoof on her mouth.
“Relax, Twilight. Everything will be fine.”
“But-”
“Auntie? May I come in now?” Blueblood called from outside.
“Yes nephew,” she replied.
Damon watched as a white stallion with a blonde mane and wearing a suit entered the building, Blueblood saw Damon and his eyes went wide and his pupils shrank.
‘Here it comes…’ Twilight thought as she cringed, bracing herself, ‘Blueblood's going to overreact and insult Damon and it’ll be the end of Equestria as we know it!’
“Ahh!” Blueblood cried out in alarm.
“Blueblood, remember what we just said about acting as a diplomat for your kingdom with a new race,” Celestia said.
“I-I’m sorry, Auntie, I just was a little surprised that’s all. My apologies, Mister Damon, I’m still a little new to this,” Blueblood said with a bow and offering his hoof.
“It’s okay your Highness, I’ve had worse reactions,” Damon replied, glancing at the Elements as he shook his hoof.
Twilight felt her eye twitch again as she incoherently began to babble trying to make sense of what she just watched.
“My auntie told me of your appearance, but I must admit that I wasn’t expecting to see you as you are,” Blueblood chuckled, “what with the bones and all that.”
“Yes, liches can be a little bit startling I know, would you like some tea? It’s freshly made.”
“That would be splendid, thank you,”
As Damon let Blueblood have his seat and poured him a cup of tea, the Princesses were also given a cup of tea each by Spike who had come back from the kitchen.
“Now that we are all here, perhaps we can get started?” Luna asked.
Everyone nodded in agreement with a smile on their face, all except Twilight who remained where she was, eye still twitching like mad as no coherent sentences left her mouth as a slight froth formed in the corners of her mouth, trying to comprehend everything that had just happened. Everything she had heard about Blueblood over the years of her time in Canterlot was just destroyed in a few seconds and to make things worse, she was pretty certain that Damon had just compared her and her friends to the Prince.
“Twilight? Would you please join us?” Celestia asked her.
“Yeah, Twilight,” Rainbow snickered, “wipe the froth from your mouth and pull up a chair.”
Twilight felt something snap inside of her.
“IS EVERYPONY CRAZY?!” She screamed.
Everyone stared at her startled by her outburst, Twilight heavily panted before her eyes fluttered and she let out a frustrated groan and fainted.
“Yo, Twilight?” Spike said, poking her gently, “you alright?”
Twilight groaned as she slowly opened her eyes, standing just beside her looking concerned for her was Spike, Rarity, Pinkie, Applejack, Fluttershy and Rainbow with Celestia behind them.
“Huh? What happened?” She asked.
“You kind of screamed at everpony, then proceeded to faint,” Rarity replied.
“How long was I out?” Twilight felt her cheeks redden with embarrassment.
“‘Bout five minutes or so,” Applejack said, “give or take.”
“Are you ok though, Twilight?” Celestia asked her.
“I-I think so,” she replied, “I’m sorry Princess…”
“It’s fine, Twilight, would you come and have a seat now? We decided to wait for you,” Celestia said with a smile.
Twilight looked over to see Luna, Blueblood, Berry Punch and Damon chatting away with one another causally. With a nod to Celestia, she got up and took a seat along with the others, Celestia smiled and cleared her throat as she began the meeting.
“Firstly, I would like to discuss housing for Damon, I would like to thank you for putting him up for the night, Berry Punch.”
“No problem your Highness,” Berry replied.
“Now, me and Luna have been talking about his permanent residence-”
“Actually Princess,” Berry interrupted, “I don’t mind him staying with me permanently, he’s a pretty cool guy and besides, I think my daughter would have a strop if he didn’t,” Berry giggled.
“Oh,” Celestia replied, “well… I guess that settles it then. Are these arrangements okay with you, Damon?”
“Mhm, was going to ask if I could stay with her anyway, given I’d rather not live with ponies that tried to kill me.”
Before the Elements could reply to his last remark, Celestia raised her hoof up to silence the oncoming retorts.
“And that is the second item of business, girls. You owe Damon an apology for your behaviour.”
Blueblood had to hold back a snicker, the idea of his great and powerful aunt Luna and the Elements of Harmony, the Kingdom’s heros, apologising somewhat amused him.
“We’re sorry, Damon,” Rarity started.
“It was really, really, really mean of us,” Pinkie said with a small frown.
“I-I’m sorry for t-tricking you a-as well…” Fluttershy whispered.
“Yeah, sorry,” Rainbow grumbled looking away in a huff.
“Ahm sorry, hun,” Applejack said taking off her hat, “Ah guess we all jus’ jumped before thinkin’ it through properly.”
“And I’m sorry too, Damon,” Twilight finished, “I shouldn’t have just assumed everything was wrong and kept a rational head about everything…”
Damon looked at the girls who looked back at him waiting for his answer, they tried to read his expression but only got a sour glare in return before he grinned.
“It’s in the past, I would’ve done the same in your shoes, or hooves in this case. All’s forgiven.”
The girls let out a sigh of relief as Damon picked up Fluttershy and gave her a hug, causing the yellow pegasus to squeak in surprise.
“And I must say, Fluttershy, it was very brave of you to put yourself in harms way like that.”
“It was?” She asked.
“Mhm, even if I wasn’t evil, it still was bloody brave,” Damon chuckled placing her down.
Fluttershy blushed slightly but she couldn’t help but smile, feeling slightly more confident than normal. Everyone’s attention then turned to Luna who had a stubborn look on her face, she caught everyone’s gaze and raised her brow.
“What?” She asked.
“Luna,” Celestia deadpanned, “you know what.”
“But, Tiiiiiiiiiiiiia!” Luna whined, “he started it!”
“That was an accident, blame Dorian for that!” Damon protested.
Celestia couldn’t help but have a strange sense of familiarity with that name, she decided to look into who Dorian was later before placing a hoof on Luna’s shoulder.
“Come now, Luna, apologise.”
“Look, if it means anything. I’m sorry too,” Damon said.
“Fine, I apologise for my actions, Damon,” Luna replied, giving a defeated sigh.
Blueblood leant closer to Celestia.
“Is auntie Luna always like this in meetings?” He asked with a whisper.
Celestia then cleared her throat getting everyone's attention before continuing.
“Now that we have those two items out of the way, and before we begin with questions, as I suspect we all have ones to ask.”
Damon and the girls nodded, both sides having questions they wanted answers to.
“We need to think of a positive way for Damon’s existence and the possibility of his world to be exposed to the public without causing any alarm from within the Kingdom, or outside it,” Celestia finished.
Celestia knew exactly what she was going to do about it, but she was purposely holding back and kept a careful eye on Blueblood out of the corner of her eye, waiting for a reply.
“Well… I got nothing,” Damon said, “it’s your world so I’m completely unfamiliar with how things work here.”
“Why not hold a huge party for him?” Pinkie grinned,” and invite everypony.”
“What kind of party?” Twilight replied, “the nobles might not like the way you party Pinkie…”
Pinkie pouted and crossed her legs in a huff.
“We could… uh…” Rainbow started, “oh how about… nah that wouldn’t work.”
“Sister, what about the-”
Celestia interrupted Luna with a quick look, Luna looked at her puzzled before Celestia made a quick indication with her eyes at Blueblood. Luna nodded and smiled, realising what Celestia was doing.
“Well shoot… ah can’t think of anything really… ahm not sure how the politics an’ such work, truth be told,” Applejack admitted.
“Hmm…” Twilight mused, before gasping as an idea came into her head, “what about-”
“Auntie…” Blueblood began, accidentally interrupting Twilight as he released something, “the Grand Galloping Gala is happening soon, and a lot of dignitaries are coming so… why not introduce him there?”
Twilight glared at Blueblood, annoyed that the Prince had said what she was about to suggest.
“That’s an excellent idea, Blueblood,” Celestia smiled, “do you have any objections to this, Damon?”
“Nope, sounds like a good idea to me your Highness,” Damon replied.
Blueblood smiled happily to himself, pleased his first diplomatic meeting was going well.
“Uh… Twi?” Applejack asked, “you ok there sugarcube? You’re… kinda grinding your teeth…”
Twilight looked at Applejack, a slight twitch in her eye.
“I’m fine, Applejack, just peachy.”
“Now that we have that settled, I believe it’s time for some questions,” Celestia said.
Twilight suddenly snapped out of her mood and grinned in excitement, already floating over a quill and several blank scrolls. Suddenly the room burst into shouts as the girls and Luna bombarded Damon with all sorts of questions, Damon tried to process all of them before Celestia stamped her hoof hard, silencing the room.
“Settle down everypony, settle down. This is how it’ll go, Damon will have the honor of asking the first question, followed by Berry, Spike and then each of the Elements, myself, Luna and finally Blueblood. Agreed?”
The room nodded in agreement, Damon tapped his chin trying to think of a question.
“Ok, my first question is this and frankly I don’t know why It’s taken me this long to ask it. Just exactly where am I? Like, what is the name of this world and who rules it?”
“You’re currently in the Kingdom of Equestria, which is heavily pony populated. Surrounding us is the Dragon Lands, The Griffon Confederacy, The Badlands, The Minotaur Tribes,” Celestia replied, “there's also the buffalo clans to the west and to the far south are the Zebra Lands, they're other smaller nations but it would take a while to go through each of them individually, such as the Humgolians.
“Okay, that answers part of it, but what is this world called. Like how my world has Kingdoms and Empires but the world is called Cyrium,”
“That’s easy to answer,” Luna started, “it’s…. uh…”
Luna paused as she drew a blank and looked at Celestia, Celestia tapped her chin with a hoof pondering the question for a moment.
“You know… I don’t actually remember,” Celestia replied a little embarrassed.
“Okay…” Damon replied, little confused before looking over to see the Elements huddled up, “what’re you doing?” He asked.
“Just deciding who gets to go first,” Pinkie giggled.
He nodded and patiently sipped some more tea as Berry rolled her eyes at the girls and shook her head.
“Nah it’s okay, I can just ask him stuff later on, besides it’s Spike’s go after me,” Berry said with a smile to Twilight.
Twilight smiled sheepishly, looking down at a slightly annoyed Spike.
“Sorry, Spike…”
“Your question little guy?” Damon asked.
“You told me you have dragons where you're from, what are they like? Can they grow really big? Are they nice, mean, helpful-”
Twilight giggled and put a hoof over his mouth silencing him.
“Easy there, Spike,”
“Hehe… sorry,” Spike replied rubbing the back of his head.
“Well it really depends on what kind of dragon you meet,” Damon began, “you have some dragons who prefer to live a life of solitude whereas you get the ones who are evil and don’t mind doing whatever it takes to get what they want.”
He saw Spike frown slightly saddened to hear how mean dragons could be.
“However,” he continued, Spikes frown brightening up, “you get dragons who are very noble, always willing to help out. There’s a group, the Templars of Tal-zor, that work alongside these dragons to fight the evil that taints Cyrium.”
Spike’s smile suddenly became a huge grin, giggling to himself satisfied with his answer. Twilight smiled before she got her scroll and quill ready, then turned her focus on Damon.
“Okay,” Twilight cleared her throat, “so you can use magic right Damon?”
“Yes,”
“How do you channel it? All equines can use magic to a degree but unicorns and alicorns are the most adept at using it and we can channel the energy with our horns, how do you do it?”
“Well…” Damon started, “if I were to answer that, we would be here all day discussing the ins and outs of it. To put it bluntly, magic is everywhere in my world and anyone can use it, but its quite difficult to do so and takes many years to perfect it. I promise we can discuss it in further detail another day, okay?”
Twilight grumbled, she was annoyed that her personal curiosity hadn’t been sated but decided to accept the reply with a nod making a mental note to make Damon regret his promise to discuss it further.
“Next question?” Damon asked.
“U-uhm… w-what kind of a-animals do you have in Cyrium?” Fluttershy asked.
“Trust you to ask that Shy,” Rainbow shook her head.
“Well, from what little I’ve seen,” he indicated to Spike as he spoke, "you appear to have some of the creatures that exist in my world like dragons, tell me, do you have others such as wolves, chimeras, will-o-wisps, hydras?”
“Y-yeah, we have s-some of those, l-like the hydra.” She replied.
“Then we probably have the same types of animals as you do, perhaps we can go over it later on in detail, much like with me and Twilight?” Damon suggested.
“That w-would be wonderful,” Fluttershy smiled.
“Okay… and who’s next?” Damon said with a clap of his hands.
“That, would be me,” Rainbow replied.
“Right, fire away.”
“What’s the coolest thing that’s ever happened to you?” She asked.
“Hmm…” Damon began tapping his chin, “I guess it would be… when I was about fifteen, me and my Master, Kalanar, were out in the Dalmora mountains when we witnessed two black dragons fighting one another.”
Rainbow’s eyes widened as Damon continued.
“Master Kalanar told me that they were fighting for dominance or something, it was pretty amazing to witness.”
“What happened?”
Damon and the others looked down to see Spike, looking at him with a little bit of concern on his face. Damon looked at Berry who made an expression he read as saying ‘please don’t tell him one died’.
“Uh… well, after a couple hours of fighting they sort of gave up.” He replied.
“Gave up?” Spike asked.
“Yeah, they both realised that they were evenly matched and gave up.”
Damon mentally gave a sigh of relief as Spike smiled, thankful he had bought the lie. Truthfully, one of the dragons overpowered the other and managed to rip the wing from it before it crashed into the ground, much to Kalanar and Damon’s surprise.
“Do you really find my apples disgustin’?” Applejack suddenly asked, giving Damon a serious glare.
“If I’m honest, no, the one that was worm infested however, yes.”
Berry slapped her hoof against her face as Applejack’s eye twitched slightly.
“But yes, the others that didn’t have said worm in it were some of the best I have ever had and were delicious. I also apologise for insulting them and to an extent you yesterday.”
Applejack nodded with a smile, knowing he was being genuine with his answer.
“My question now,” Rarity said, “if you don’t mind me asking, who made those ghastly looking robes?”
“Excuse me?” Damon asked, crossing his arms.
“Well, if you’ll pardon me, whilst I love the simplicity and the design of them I simply must protest on the use of just blue. It definitely needs more colours and varieties darling. If you’d like I could make-”
“No thank you,” Damon interrupted with a slight glare, “I’m perfectly happy with the way they look, but thank you.”
Rarity was going to protest but Twilight caught her gaze and made a motion with her hoof across her throat signalling Rarity to be quiet, Twilight had felt an uneasy coldness come from Damon the second Rarity had insulted his outfit and figured out that for his people they must have some form of traditional value and altering the design would be offensive.
“Oh fine, but would you allow me to at least make you some other robes? I promise to leave them single coloured.”
“Alright, I’ll accept that.”
“Of all the things she could ask, and its clothes…” Twilight muttered with a shake of her head.
“Okay, and that leaves-”
“ME!” Pinkie shouted, suddenly appearing in his face out of thin air and startling him.
“GAH!? How did you do that?” Damon asked, “do you know teleportation spells?”
“I don’t silly,” she giggled and took her seat again.
“Yes… you clearly do, otherwise, how else could you have appeared like that?”
“I don’t though…” Pinkie replied with a pout.
“Let it go, Damon,” Berry sighed, “you don’t question it.”
“But-”
“Ever.”
Damon looked at the other girls who nodded in agreement with Berry, he gave a defeated sigh and decided to pursue how the pink mare worked at a later date.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaanyway,” Pinkie giggled. “I was just gunna ask-”
“Let me guess,” Rainbow interrupted, “it’ll be something about parties?”
“How did you know?” Pinkie asked before gasping, “are you a wizard?!”
Rainbow slapped her face and sighed, muttering something that Damon didn’t catch.
“So, do you like parties? Do ya? Do ya?” Pinkies asked him.
“Of course, who doesn't?” Damon snorted, “well maybe Master Kalanar… but he’s an old fart.”
Celestia blinked in surprise hearing Damon refer to someone as his Master, and from what she gathered it was a term used for a teacher, as ‘an old fart’.
“GREAT!” Pinkie giggled, “what’s your favourite flavour? I want to make you the greatest cupcake ever and-”
“Hold up, what’s a cupcake?” Damon asked, “I mean, we have cakes in Cyrium but a cupcake? Is that like, a cake served in a cup or something?”
The room was silent, everyone looked at Damon with wide eyes and open mouths like he had just insulted the Princess. He looked to Celestia and Luna who both had a slight look of concern on their faces, Blueblood raised his brow equally confused as to what was happening. Damon then caught Pinkie’s gaze and he felt his entire body go stone cold, she stared at him with a huge grin and wide eyes like she was normally, but there was something behind that happy grin that scared him.
“D-did I say something wrong?” He asked softly.
“Oh… of course not, Bones,” she said in a soft, monotone voice, “but just out of curiosity, what is your favourite flavour?”
“Uh… chocolate?”
“AWESOME!” Pinkie suddenly shouted with a giggle, seemingly returning to normal, “don’t worry, Bones. My cupcake will be the greatest thing you have ever eaten!”
Everyone let out a sigh of relief, especially Damon. He wasn’t exactly sure on what had just happened but he made a mental note never to question anything relating to these ‘cupcakes’ again. Celestia then cleared her throat and smiled at Damon ,trying to quickly steer the conversation away.
“So, Damon,” she started, “I must confess that I should have asked this question sooner…”
“Yes your Highness?”
“You told me you were a human when we… first met, but you’ve made mentions of yourself being a Lich. Why is that?”
“Well I-”
“And forgive me for asking a second question, but who is this ‘Dorian’ you mentioned?”
“Okay… firstly, I am technically a human,” Damon began, trying to think how to properly word his reply, “I was turned into a Lich by Dorian who is the God of Mischief-”
“Mischief?” Luna asked, raising her eyebrow.
“You know, pranks and such. He isn’t an evil deity rather… an annoying one.”
Luna groaned internally, remembering a certain draconequus that fitted that description all too well. Celestia on the other hand, felt a coldness run down her spine as she remembered why she had found the name Dorian to be familiar.
“As for what a Lich is… I’d rather tell you in private, it’s a delicate matter…”
“Very well, is he the one who sent you here?” She asked.
“Yes he is.”
“Okay, and please forgive the questioning after I said one per pony, do you know why?”
Damon froze slightly, remembering the words Dorian had told him before being sent here. He began to panic slightly as he tried to find words to use in his response, he had figured out that this ‘Discord’ Dorian had mentioned must have caused some bad trouble in Equestria for him to be turned to stone and didn't really feel like revealing he was technically there to set him free for Dorian, not that he had any clue how or that he was actually going to do something as stupid as that.
“Uhm… he was bored I guess, he tricked me into going into the void because he got bored and decided to have some fun by sending me here as a Lich.”
Celestia carefully observed him for a moment, Damon tried to remain as calm as he could as he felt her eyes scan him over.
“Okay, thank you, Damon. And I apologise once more for the bombardment of questions,” she smiled and turned to Luna, “Luna, your question-”
“Why did you appear in my bed!?” Luna shouted.
“You appeared in her bed?” Berry asked him before smirking.
“Not like that!” Damon shouted.
“Oh? Is that so?” Rainbow grinned along with Berry, “are you sure?”
Luna, Celestia, Twilight, Fluttershy Rarity and Blueblood all went bright red as Rainbow burst out laughing soon followed by Berry with Applejack trying not to snicker.
“R-RAINBOW!?” Twilight stuttered, “T-THAT’S THE P-PRINCESS!”
Damon slapped his face and slowly pulled his hand down before letting out a long sigh.
“Dorian decided it would be funny to place me there, I wasn’t trying to… do anything to her, okay? Can we move on please?”
“Yes… I think it’s best we do,” Celestia replied, looking at Luna who was still blushing in a state of shock.
“Master Damon,” Blueblood said, gaining everyone’s attention as Rainbow and Berry settled down, “I was curious to know about your world’s governments? Such as, who is the largest nation and such.”
Celestia smiled at her nephews question, please that he was curious about other nations even ones that were not from their world.
“The largest nation is the Altorian Empire, the Altorian’s are often referred to as snow elves due to their white skin and origins from the frozen north. They tend to be prim and proper valuing honor and discipline as well as culture but aren’t afraid of new ideas, let me tell you that you wouldn't want to get on the receiving end of a dragon fire cannon…”
They were puzzled by that but didn’t speak up, deciding to let Damon finish talking.
“You then have the second largest nation which is the Kingdom of the Four lords because it’s actually four Kingdoms that are united in an alliance, they’re the human Kingdoms and I was born in the Kingdom of Rhunae. And finally, the last large nation is the Dwarven Kingdom located underground in the Undoreign mountains, dwarves are like humans except smaller, louder, angrier, alcoholics but bloody good fighters. Like with your world, there are smaller nations but like Princess Celestia said, I could spend all day talking about them. ”
“Interesting,” Blueblood replied with a smile, satisfied with his answer.
The rest of the morning and afternoon was spent with Damon asking questions and giving answers to more questions, they learnt many things such as who the Council of Elders was to some ancient history regarding a great war that happened and Damon learned about who Nightmare Moon was as well as what the Elements of Harmony were. Eventually, Celestia looked to the clock on the wall and saw just how long they had all been talking longer than she had thought they would have.
“As much as I would love to keep this meeting going, I’m afraid that Luna, Blueblood and I must return to Canterlot. Would you be willing to attend a second meeting soon, Damon?”
“Of course, I suspect I can ask more questions though right?” He chuckled.
“Indeed,” Celestia smiled as she started to leave. “oh and one more thing, I’ll be taking the Elements of Harmony back to Canterlot with me.”
“WHAT?!” Luna and the girls, minus Fluttershy and Berry, shouted in unison.
“You can’t be serious?” Rainbow said.
“What if we need ‘em?” Applejack added.
“Sister, you cannot be serious?” Luna finished.
“ENOUGH!” Celestia bellowed.
The room went quiet again as Celestia sighed.
“I already deemed Damon not a threat, and there is honestly no reason for them to remain here at the moment” she said.
“But-” Twilight said.
“I have already decided, Twilight,” she said sternly before giving her a reassuring nuzzle to the cheek. “I have my reasons.”
Twilight gave a sigh and nodded, she knew that Celestia knew best and frankly, she and the others had nearly abused the power of the Elements or had tried to when they had assumed Damon to be evil. There was also no evidence that he was evil and he had already shown himself to be a decent person, even with his odd appearance.
“Before I do go though,” Celestia added, “Damon?””
“Yes your Highness?”
“Walk with me please.”
“Okay.”
Everyone watched as Celestia and Damon walked out of the library and towards the edge of the town, the two were in silence as they made a circle around the edge of the town and Damon was about to ask Celestia if something was the matter but she beat him to the chase.
“Damon, I’m putting a lot of trust in you by taking the Elements with me,” she said.
“I gathered, and I want to thank you for-”
“I’m not finished,” Celestia interrupted.
Damon nervously swallowed as they came to a stop by a small stream.
“Like I said, I’m putting a lot of trust in you because I can feel that you are not evil… but I want you to be honest with me, Damon…”
Celestia turned her head to look into Damon’s eyes, the seriousness in her eyes stabbing directly into Damon.
The Adventures of Damon Lipton Chapter VIII - A small reunion of old friends.
Damon felt his body go cold as the two stood in silence, his cloak billowing softly as the wind blew past. He swallowed the lump in his throat as he continued to look into Celestia’s eyes, seeing the seriousness and power behind them.
“Okay… but please, hear me out though,” he started.
Celestia gave him a nod as he sighed before speaking.
“While I was doing a report for my Master Kalanar, I found a book with a spell that would allow me to traverse the void. I assume you know what the void is?”
Celestia nodded and he continued.
“I allowed my curiosity to get the better of me and cast it… incorrectly,” Damon rubbed the back of his skull sheepishly, “something about using the wrong candles, anyway, I then found out that it was all Dorian’s doing, thinking I was actually one of his followers and he… well…”
“Yes?” Celestia asked, sensing his hesitation.
“He asked me to release a friend of his called Discord,” Damon saw Celestia’s eyes widen, “but I gathered he must have done something really evil in order to warrant his stone prison,” he quickly added.
This calmed Celestia as Damon settled onto the ground cross legged and looked out to the town.
“I didn’t ask for this you know? Dorian just decided I was ‘right’ for the job,” he said with a sigh, “even turning me into a bloody Lich was part of his ‘fun’...” Damon muttered softly.
“So, what do you plan to do?” Celestia asked, sitting beside him.
“Honestly, I’m not going to do what Dorian wants me to do, I’d rather not be turned to stone. I hear its bad for your health,” Damon smirked, “I’ll probably just try and find a different way to return to Cyrium I guess, and have some fun whilst I live here.”
Celestia and Damon Shared a laugh as he leant back on the grass and looked up to the sky.
“Would you like to know what he did?” Celestia asked.
Damon thought for a moment and stroked his chin.
“Alright then,” he replied.
“About a thousand years ago, he turned Equestria into his own chaotic playground,” Celestia began, “me and my sister managed to defeat him by using the Elements of Harmony to imprison him in stone.”
Damon nodded as she continued.
“What nopony else knows is that, Dorian and Discord are friends and have been for centuries. At first, they were harmless, just causing slight mayhem that was manageable until,” Celestia sighed and shook her head, “they got into an argument on who could cause more mayhem, Discord’s chaos or Dorian’s mischief. So Dorian went back to Cyrium to cause his mischief whilst Discord started his chaos, after we had trapped him in stone, Dorian never appeared again and to this day we have no idea why.”
“Maybe because Discord wasn’t around anymore?” Damon suggested.
“Maybe… maybe we will never know,” Celestia said.
They sat in silence again for a while as the wind gently blew over the two.
“Thank you for being honest with me, Damon,” Celestia suddenly said.
“Not at all your Highness,” Damon replied with a smile.
“We should return to the others, Although I would like to do one last thing first.”
“What’s that?” He asked her.
Damon stood up to face her only to watch her slowly tap his shoulders one after the other with her horn before rising her head with a smile.
“I officially welcome you, Damon Lipton, to the Kingdom of Equestria and officially recognise you as an equal citizen in this land,” Celestia said.
“Thank you… that’s rather decent of you,” Damon grinned.
Celestia giggled as the two began to make their way back to the others, casually chatting to one another about various topics.
“So you’ll come back tomorrow right?” Twilight asked with pleading eyes.
“If I can, I promised Berry that I’d spend the day with Pinchy given its the weekend, and besides I think it’ll be fair to talk to Fluttershy first, given how much we will be discussing.” Damon replied.
Twilight pouted but reluctantly agreed before smiling, realising that it just gave her more time to prepare the oncoming onslaught that would be her questions. As Damon and Berry left the library, being the last ones to go having remained behind for another hour or so after the meeting had been concluded, she waved them off before closing the door slowly and turning her head to look behind her.
“I don’t know why you guys thought he was evil, he’s a pretty cool guy,” Spike said.
Spike looked at Twilight who had a massive grin on her face and felt his body go a little numb, the last time he had seen her like this was the last time she had an all nighter study session.
“Uh... Twilight?”
“Spike… be a dear and ready my quills, scrolls, books and everything else please?” She smiled sweetly.
“Yes Twilight! Right away!” Spike replied quickly and ran off.
Twilight cackled to herself as she headed over to her desk, oh the fun she would have with her questions. She giggled more to herself as she thought about all the books she could fill up with the new found knowledge she would gain.
“So, where to now then Berry?” Damon asked as the two walked through the town.
The fiasco and chaos from the previous day’s events had seemed to simply blow over, over the course of the day the ponies had heard that the Princesses as well as the Prince had arrived in Ponyville earlier that morning in order to talk with the supposed evil that they had claimed was plaguing their town, they had felt a little nervous about it because they were unsure as to what would happen, especially seeing Princess Celestia leave with the creature to talk in private.
This had soon passed however, as the ponies had watched a friendly goodbye between the two and although they were still a little cautious, they all had felt a little bit more reassured on the matter and some had actually waved the Damon and Berry as they walked through the town.
“You know, for a town that thought I was a monster and pure evil and possible the spawn of some Demon, they do seem to forgive rather quickly don’t they?” Damon said as he waved to a random pony.
“I know, it just seems to be the normal thing around here, but anyway, we’re going to go pick up Pinchy from school now seeing as we spent all day at the at that meeting,” Berry replied.
“Alright, you want me to cook dinner? You know, to make up for how long it took.”
“Do you even know how to cook?” She smirked.
“It can’t be that hard… right?”
“Just don’t burn my kitchen down.”
“No promises.”
Berry giggled as the two began to approach the school, soon seeing Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Rarity also heading towards the school who then saw the two approach them and stopped, deciding to wait for Damon and Berry to catch up.
“Howdy you two,” Applejack said with a wave.
Before Damon or Berry could answer, there was a collective gasp nearby and they turned to see three fillies staring at Damon with wide eyes. One of them was a orange pegasus with a purple mane, one was a white coated unicorn with a pink and purple mane and the other was an earth pony with a red mane and a yellow coat who was sporting a big pink bow. They stared at Damon for a brief moment as Damon stared back before they burst out into a loud squeal of delight.
“Oh my gosh, Pinchy was telling the truth!” The orange one squealed, “he is a skeleton!”
“That’s so cool!” The yellow one added.
“He’s kinda creepy looking…” the one with the white coat said softly.
“Girls, don’t be rude,” Rarity said, ignoring the look Damon gave her after she had said that, “this is Damon, a friend of ours.”
“Since when?” Damon asked.
He was given a smack to the side from Berry Punch who sighed and rolled her eyes, the three fillies giggled at the antics. They all heard a loud gasp and before Damon could react, he was tackled by a pink filly who held onto him tightly with a massive grin on her face.
“Yay! You came!” Pinchy cried happily.
“Of course I did,” Damon chuckled giving her a hug, “I said I would.”
Berry smiled as Pinchy came over to her and hugged her before running back to the other three fillies, Damon smiled watching as Berry, Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow began talking to one another until he heard he heard two voices behind them.
“So, it is true, Pinchy is friends with a freak.”
“Is that an actual skeleton, thats disgusting!”
Damon looked over to see a pink filly with a tiara and a silver coated filly with glasses walk over to them.
“What do you want, Diamond?” The white one asked.
“Nothing, just to remind you four losers that you're exactly that, losers!” Diamond replied.
“Yeah, you blank flanks are such losers!”
“Why I-” the orange one started.
“Leave it, Scootaloo, they're not worth it,” the white one interrupted her.
“Sweetie Belle’s right Scoots,” the yellow one added.
Scootaloo snorted as she reluctantly turned around with the other three, trying their best to ignore the two.
“Don’t turn your back on us! Nopony turns their back on us right, Silver Spoon?”
“Yeah,” Silver replied.
Diamond then noticed Damon looking at her and glared at him.
“What are you looking at? Freak.”
“Wow, okay,” Damon began, “you are two children right? Why are you being this hostile to someone you haven’t met before?”
“Because you’re a freak!” Diamond retorted.
“Yeah,” Silver added.
By now, the three Elements and Berry had noticed what was going on and turned from their conversation to see Damon talking with the two fillies.
“Right, smart. Insult a creature you have NEVERSEEN BEFORE! Without knowing anything about him. Clever.”
“We don’t need to know you, all you freaks are the same. Just like those blank flanks!” Silver sneered.
“Leave him alone!” Pinchy shouted, “he hasn’t done anything to you!”
“Buzz off you blank flank!” Diamond shouted, “go back to your alcoholic mother!”
The three Elements and Berry gasped completely shocked at what she said, especially Berry, their eyes fell on Berry who too shocked for words but Pinchy felt tears form in her eyes.
“T-take that back!” Pinchy cried.
“Daddy says your mum is a good for nothing, worthless, drunk….”
Before either Berry, Applejack, Rarity or Rainbow could say anything about the fillies rude behaviour, Diamond suddenly stopped talking as she watched Damon, who had been quiet up until now, slowly crouch down to be eye level with the two bullies and chuckled.
“You know, that was pretty funny. Know what else is funny?” He asked.
“What?” Silver asked unamused.
Damon suddenly twisted his head with a sickening crack and pulled off his skull much to the horror of the two bullies, he casually tossed it from his right hand to his left whilst whistling a merry tune before holding it in front of the two.
“This,” he said coldly, “now… think about what I could do to you, which I won’t, if you apologise to everyone. Right. Now.”
“W-we’re sorry!” Diamond squeaked.
“Y-yeah, we d-didn't mean it!” Silver added.
“Now… this is the part, where you run away…” Damon whispered to them.
The two fillies quickly cried in terror and ran away as fast as they could, Damon chuckled and stood up before readjusting his head on his neck and looking to the others. He blinked as Berry, the Elements, and the filles stared at him in shock.
“What?” He asked, "too much?"
Before the adults could say anything, they were interrupted by the gasps of the fillies.
“That… was… AWESOME!” Scootaloo shouted.
“Yeah! You totally kicked their flanks!” Sweetie Belle added.
“Thanks Mister!” The yellow one finished, “them bullies are always botherin’ us!”
As Damon was about to speak, Berry walked over and gave him another smack to the side.
“OW! What was that for?!” He protested.
“You just got the town to calm down, you do not need to antagonise anypony by removing your head!” Berry replied.
“Good point…”
“However… as much as you shouldn’t have,” Berry started, “thanks for sticking up for me, Pinchy and her friends,” she finished with a smile.
“Yeah… as much as ah don’t condone bullyin’ or whatever,” Applejack added, “them two fillies are always causing problems for Applebloom and her friends.”
“Applebloom?” Damon asked.
“Yes sir! That’s me!” The yellow filly replied.
“Ah, right,” Damon nodded.
“I have to agree, your method may have been a little… unorthodox, but those two bullies did need being taught a lesson,” Rarity said.
“You're not such a bad guy after all, Bone man,” Rainbow grinned.
“Bone man?” Damon asked.
“Hey, if Pinkie can give you a nickname, why can’t I?” Rainbow protested.
Damon sighed and shook his head before feeling something jump onto his chest and cling tightly, he looked down to see a teary eyed Pinchy hugging him with a smile.
“Thank you for sticking up for me, Uncle Bones…” Pinchy said softly.
“You’re welcome kid,” Damon smiled, hugging her softly.
“Oh, so it’s ok for her to nickname you but not for- OW!” Rainbow was smacked in the side by Applejack, shutting her up.
As the group chatted for a little while, Damon learned that the three other fillies were called the Cutie Mark Crusaders and decided to ask Berry about what exactly a cutie mark was. Eventually the group said their goodbyes and Damon, Berry and Pinchy headed towards home, Pinchy convincing Damon to let her ride on his shoulders.
“So you’re really going to cook us dinner, Uncle Bones?” Pinchy asked.
“Well… try would be more accurate,” he replied
“Do I have to get a fire extinguisher ready?” Berry teased.
“Hey! I’m not… that bad!” Damon protested, “I have made toast before!”
Berry rolled her eyes before giggling as the three headed for home, the sun starting to slowly descend as Pinchy and Damon engaged in another round of ‘Skeletal transportation vessel’.
As the sun hung above the horizon, two guards left a large building that was the Canterlot barracks and began to head out towards the Royal gardens. Out of all the patrols there was for the capital, none were hated more than the Royal garden route, not because it was painfully hard or difficult, it was the fact it was simply very boring. Nothing ever happened there, it was simply just a walk around the gardens that took hours to complete, given the sheer size of it and many thought it to be completely pointless, even some of the senior officers.
However, the two guards that had just left, Steel Wing and Shield Heart, a white pegasus mare and a blue unicorn stallion, were the only guards who would volunteer for the patrol route. They would always say excuses along the lines of that someone had to do it or it stops the seniors from getting annoyed, truth is every guard knew of their badly kept secret that the two were in a relationship with each other.
As they trotted down the garden, all the while keeping a stern expression until they were out of eyeshot from anyone before giggling to each other. Taking one last look around, Steel wing moved closer to her coltfriend with a smile and giggled again.
“Do you think they know?” She asked.
“I doubt it,” Shield Heart replied, “otherwise we wouldn’t have heard the end of it.”
“True, true… so what would you like to do tonight?” Steel asked him.
“We could always go down the route of the garden with the statues in them?” Shield offered.
“That sounds lovely,” she smiled.
They made their way down the statute section of the gardens, Steel always loved it here. The various statues ranged from ones of past heroes of the Kingdom to creatures either extinct or mythical, but out of all of them there was one that she found the most fascinating. The statue was a creature that was made up of several different creatures and always fascinated her, it was supposedly called ‘Discord’ and represented everything that was chaotic in the world. Shield, however, didn’t share her enthusiasm.
“Can we go, Steel? This statue always gives me the creeps…”
“Oh come on, wheres my big brave stallion?” She giggled looking to him, “I don’t suppose you have seen him anywhere little colt?”
Steel giggled once more before looking back to the statue, failing to notice the odd looking mist slowly creeping up on the pair from behind. Shield heard a soft rustle and looked round just in time for the mist to blast through his body, causing his body to go stone cold for a brief moment which caused his fur to turn grey before he fell unconscious. Hearing the thud of something hitting the ground, Steel turned round to see Shield on the floor and her eyes went wide in alarm seeing his unmoving grey body.
“Shield? Shield?! SHIELD!” She cried.
She could see him breathing and felt for his pulse, satisfied for a moment she hovered into the air slightly and drew her sword, scanning the area around them for anything. Whatever had caused Shield to faint was clearly a threat, she wanted to run back to the barracks to warn the others but she couldn’t leave him here.
“Alright, SHOW YOURSELF!” She shouted.
A rustle behind her caught her attention and she swung round, sword at the ready.
“WHO’S-”
She come face to face to the swirling mist and her eyes went wide in fear, the mist had a clear and visible manic grin and two black, soulless eyes. She opened her mouth to demand an answer from it and no sooner had she done so, the mist shot at great speed into her mouth. She choked as it finished entering her before falling to the ground and writhing in agony before stopping, a brief silence hung over the garden before Steel finally stood up slowly, opening her eyes to reveal they were now black with a silver dot in the centre and she grinned.
“Silly lass shouldn’t have struggled, wouldn’t have hurt as much,” Steel spoke, but with a different voice, “anyway, back to business. Hello?!” she shouted, hitting the statue with her hoof, “you in there, Discord?”
“Hello, Dorian,” Discord’s voice said, some annoyance in his tone, “finally decided to show up then?”
“Of course! Why wouldn’t I come visit my bestest friend in all the twenty five and a half worlds after all the fun we had?” Dorian replied.
“Ah the fun times we had… shame about that never working wasn’t it?” Discord chuckled.
“Aye, the looks on the faces of the mortals when you sent an army of animated furniture to take control of New Talazar in Cyrium was priceless!” Dorian replied.
“But what about when you crashed Celly’s eighteenth party by appearing naked in her cake? THAT was priceless!” Discord said in between laughs.
“Haha! Indeed it was, old friend, indeed it was.”
There was a silence as the possessed body of Steel looked at the statue of Discord, tilting its head at the sounds of Discord clearly trying to stifle a laugh.
“What?” Dorian asked.
“You realise you took control of the mare, not the stallion. Right?”
“Did I?” Dorian looked over his body, “huh… they all look the same to me.”
“Why did you possess her anyway? Why not just use your normal form? I miss that top hat of yours that could swear like a sailor.”
“I don’t know really, thought it be fun to see through another's eyes. That, and I don’t get noticed by anyone."
“But in all seriousness, Dorian, I sent my message for help a thousand years ago. Why has it taken you this long to come back?”
“You don’t know what happened, do you?” Dorian replied.
There was no reply from the statue, Dorian sighed and sat on its head as he looked up to the sky.
“After the uh… incident,” Dorian started, “we might have attracted the attention of some of the darker Gods…”
“And?”
“Well… the other Gods, the good guys, managed to stop J’skaar from invading Equestria and managed to seal off the link between our worlds. Leaving me trapped in Cyrium and unable to help you, still, imagine my surprise when I opened my door the other day to find a bunch of dead chickens, who looked like they had been there for about a thousand years, with your message on them.” Dorian laughed.
“So, how did the link re-open?” Discord asked.
“I honestly have no idea, and frankly I don’t care!” Dorian grinned, “and don’t you worry your pretty little socks, I’ll get you out of here… soon,”
“Why not right now?” Discord grumbled, “I need to stretch badly and start causing chaos.”
“I don’t want to attract too much attention to myself at the moment, given the other Gods are not too happy with me… so I sent one of my not-a-follower-but-could-be-if-he-tries-hard-enough to come and help a bit more discreetly!”
“Is it Delaros?” Discord asked with hope in his tone, “now he was a human who knew how to have fun!”
“No, not really, it’s some fellow called Damon Lipton. Nice lad, a bit strange and weird but he has potential, can use magic too so thats a bonus. I even threw in a fun twist for his adventures!”
“What did you do?”
“Made him a Lich! Don’t know why, I just did.”
“A Lich?” Discord laughed, “Oh when old sunbutt remembers about their kind she is going to go crazy!”
“I know right?” Dorian joined in the laughing.
“So how long till I get out?”
“Not sure, have to be patient for him to do it I suppose. Speaking of which, I need to get going, places to go, people to see, mischief to cause you know the drill.”
“Wonderfull…” Discord sighed, “It was nice seeing you again, Dorian, until next time.”
With that, Steel fell to the ground and writhed in agony, gagging as the mist left her mouth rendering her unconscious. The mist shot off away from the gardens at great speed, it soon came to the edge of the Everfree forest and floated briefly before vanishing from sight.
The Adventures of Damon Lipton Chapter IX - Pinchy’s Day Out Part I
As sun rose over the horizon, the rays of sunlight peeked their way in through the curtains and slowly crawled their way to Damon who was in his bed sound asleep, his snores filling up the room. Unbeknownst to Damon, someone else was in the room with him, someone who was trying there best to not giggle as they slowly made their way over to the window.
As Damon rolled over so he was facing the window, they were suddenly yanked open and the light burst into the room. With a yowl of surprise as the sunlight burned into his eyes, Damon jerked upright, got tangled in his duvet and proceeded to fall out of the bed with a thud, his legs remaining on the bed as he groaned.
“Wakey wakey Uncle Bones!” Pinchy giggled as she jumped onto the bed and peer over.
“Pinchy… what time is it?” Damon groaned.
“About… five in the morning?” She replied.
“Seriously?” He sighed, “I know I’d said I’d spend the day with you today but come on, let me sleep for five more minutes?”
Damon began to pretend to snore causing Pinchy to gasp and clamber down onto his chest carefully.
“Gotcha!”
Pinchy squealed in delight as Damon suddenly grabbed her and began a merciless tickle attack, she wriggled in his grip as he cackled madly.
“Haha! I have got you now, the Hooded Shadow! Fear my deadly attack of the tickles!”
“N-nooooo!” Pinchy giggled, “you w-won’t get away with this!”
“And who's going to stop me?” Damon cackled.
“The very tired and irate parent who you just woke up.”
Damon turned to the doorway only to receive a pillow to the face from Berry Punch, making him release Pinchy who cried in triumph and clambered onto her mother’s back.
“Thank you, my almighty sidekick… uh… Supermummy!”
Berry rolled her eyes and chuckled at her daughter's antics as Damon rose up and cracked his back.
“Sorry, Berry. How about I make breakfast?”
“You are not going near my kitchen again,” Berry scowled, “not after what you did last night!”
“Whaaat? All I did was burn some things,”
Berry continued to scowl at him.
“And animated some eggs for Pinchy’s entertainment...”
She raised her brow at him.
“Then set the curtains on fire…” he sheepishly laughed.
“Exactly, I’ll be making food from now on,” Berry snorted as she left the room, followed by Damon.
“Can I at least make toast?” He asked.
“Especially not toast… never… toast.”
As Damon and Pinchy sat at the breakfast table as Berry cooked some food for them, Damon tried once more to offer his assistance and again being shot down.
“These conditions are… unacceptable,” Damon grumbles and looked at Pinchy who knew what he was going to do next.
“UNACCEPTABLE!” The both shouted in high pitched unison, Pinchy waving her front legs in the air dramatically..
“Well tough, I’m the boss!” Berry smirked, “you gotta deal with it!”
“Yeah yeah, how long till its ready?” Damon asked, “I’m starving.”
“Well, you do look like a little on the skinny side,” Berry giggled.
“Really… you actually said that,” Damon deadpanned.
“Yup!”
“And this is going to be a thing now, isn’t it?”
“Yup!”
“Great…” Damon muttered sarcastically
After enjoying breakfast and hating more of Berry’s puns, Damon took Pinchy out the back and into the garden to play for a bit before taking her out for the day. Damon had promised to take Pinchy on a walk through the town then through Whitetail woods, he originally wanted to go through the Everfree but was warned off it being told it was too dangerous.
He argued he had magic at his disposal if anything showed up, Berry argued that he was responsible for a foal.
Naturally, Berry won the argument.
As Damon stated to push Pinchy on her swing set using a small wind spell, Berry began to wash the plates and cooking utensils whilst whistling to herself. There was a knock on the door which she assumed was the mailmare, quickly drying her hooves with a towel before heading to the front door. She opened it with a smile on her face and was surprised to not see Derpy, rather, she saw Filthy Rich and Diamond Tiara behind him.
“Mister Rich? What brings you here this earlier?” She asked.
“Hello, Miss Berry. I was wondering if we could possibly go inside and speak about yesterday's… incident.
“O-of course,” Berry replied, a little uneasy.
As she stepped aside to let them in, she saw the smirk on Diamonds face as she closed the door slowly behind them.
Damon suddenly stopped using his spell and looked up in alarm and confusion.
“What is it, Uncle Bones?” Pinchy asked him.
“I feel… a strange disturbance…” he murmured.
“Damon! Pinchy!” Berry called from inside, “can you come inside please?”
They shared a confused glance at one another before they both headed back inside, Pinchy immediately hid behind Damon as she spotted Diamond sitting in the living room alongside Filthy and her mother.
“So you must me Damon… correct?” Filthy asked.
“Aye, and I assume given you’re with her, you must be her father or some form of relative?” Damon replied.
“I am her father yes, Filthy Rich.”
Filthy extended a hoof to him and Damon shook it, just as Pinchy darted behind her mother a little scared.
“So, what brings you round here?” Damon asked, taking a seat.
Berry sat next to Damon on the sofa as Pinchy settled in between them, leaning on her mother slightly and trying to avoid the glare Diamond gave.
“Well, it involves you mainly.” Filthy began, “and what you did to my daughter and her friend.
“You mean the skull thing?” He asked as Filthy nodded, “okay, I admit that it was a little bit to much but with respect, your daughter was being very rude to Pinchy and Berry.”
Filthy’s brow raised as he cast a glance over to Diamond who was now looking a little uneasy.
“Is that so? You told me that he did it without any reason.”
“But he did, daddy! He started it!” Diamond protested.
“No he didn’t!” Pinchy shouted, “you came over and started being mean to us, like you always do!”
Damon studied Filthy’s expression, he could clearly see that the father was surprised by Pinchy’s accusation and figured that he wasn’t being told properly by the school about Diamond’s behaviour.
“No I didn’t you little freak!” Diamond snapped, “shut your mouth!”
“Diamond!” Filthy shouted, shocked at her outburst.
Diamond shrunk in her seat as her fathers angry glare beared down on her, he looked over to the others and sighed.
“I’m so sorry, I have no idea where that came from. she’s usually really well behaved at home…” he turned to Diamond again, “apologise young filly!”
“Sorry…” Diamond muttered.
“It’s ok,” Berry sighed as she cuddled a sniffling Pinchy, “I’m sure there’s a reason behind all this.”
“Just out of curiosity,” Damon began, “do you know what Diamond called Berry?”
“No, like I said, Diamond didn’t tell me that she had said anything rude or horrible,” he replied.
Damon looked over to Berry who nodded, she placed Pinchy on the floor and smiled.
“Sweetie, will you take Diamond into the kitchen and pour each other a glass of juice?”
“But muuum,” Pinchy whined.
“It’s ok, Pinches,” Damon smiled, using the nickname he made the previous day, “Diamond won’t do anything, right, Diamond?”
Diamond looked at Damon who was giving her a very serious glare, remembering what he did yesterday she nodded and without complaint, followed Pinchy into the kitchen leaving the adults alone.
“So what did she supposedly say then?” Filthy asked.
“She said ‘Buzz off you blank flank, go back to you alcoholic mother’,” Damon replied.
Filthy’s eyes went wide speechless, he blinked for a moment before finding his voice.
“S-she said… that?”
“Yes, I’m afraid she did, it upset Pinchy something awful,” Berry replied.
“I thought I was on my own when I said that… please understand, Miss Berry, Damon. I wasn’t talking about you,” Filthy said.
“Oh?” Damon replied, crossing his arms.
“You see… Diamond’s mother and I… we split up last year,” Filthy began.
Berry was visibly shocked by that, Damon didn’t understand why though.
“But you two look so happy together in public,” Berry replied.
“It’s a facade, for Diamond’s sake. The other night I got into an argument with her mother on the phone and I think she over heard the things I called her, one of them being an alcoholic mother with the same morals as a whore…”
Berry placed a hoof over her mouth in shock as Damon struggled not to laugh at the term whorse, then realised why Luna had taken offense to him when they had met as ‘horse’ and ‘whore’ must have sounded like he was called her a whore, Damon slapped himself mentally in the face.
“I-I see…” Berry started.
“I’m truly sorry about what Diamond said, I’ll talk with her later about it,” Filthy apologised.
Pinchy and Diamond returned from the kitchen both drinking from a glass of apple juice, Pinchy climbed back onto the sofa as Diamon sat back next to her father.
“Diamond, we need to talk later okay? But right now you are for what you called Miss Berry and for upsetting her daughter,” he said sternly
“Yes daddy… sorry miss Berry… sorry Pinchy,” Diamond said with sincerity.
“It’s ok, Diamond,” Berry smiled as Pinchy nodded with her own smile.
“And I’m sorry to, Mister Rich,” Damon added, “I was a little bit over the top yesterday as well.
“All behind us now,” Filthy smiled, “I’m just glad this mess was sorted out nicely, we’ll show ourselves out. Have a good day you three.”
“Goodbye,” Berry said as Filthy and Diamond left the house.
“Well… that was interesitng,” Damon said.
“I’ll say…” Berry replied.
“Mum? Can me and Uncle Bones go now?” Pinchy asked.
“Of course sweetie, go and get yourself read okay?”
“Yes mum!”
Pinchy squealed in delight as she scrambled to her hooves and rush upstairs to get ready, leaving Damon and Berry chuckling before she gave him a serious glare.
“Remember, no dangerous places please. Try and stick to the woods okay?”
“I’ll try my best,” Damon grinned.
Berry rolled her eyes as they heard Pinchy running down the stairs again, they both couldn’t help smiling at her. Because it was going to rain soon, Pinchy was wearing a yellow foal sized raincoat complete with rain hat, four bright red welly boots covered her hooves and a saddle bag rested on her side for to carry her lunch in and a big grin on her face.
“Oh, you are so adorable!” Berry giggled, “stay they're I need to get my camera!”
“What on Cyrium is a camera?” Damon asked.
“You don’t have cameras?” Berry asked
“What gave it away?” He replied with sarcasm, getting a bop from Berry, “we had this conversation already about the ‘light switch’, as you call it.”
Berry giggled in remembrance, the first time Damon had seen a light switch turn on he demanded to know what sorcery was powering it and then proceeded to play with the light switch, turning it on and off, for several hours.
Pinchy beamed as her mother snapped a picture of her, with Damon looking at the camera with fascination before Berry shoved him next to Pinch who proceeded to climb into his arms and they both posed for the camera.
After posing for what seemed like several hundred photos, Damon and Pinchy finally got out of the house and proceeded to make their way through town. As they walked, they were greeted by several ponies and almost every colt or filly who happened to be outside, much to Damon’s amusement. As scheduled, the rain began soon after they had left, ponies began to either go back inside their houses or into buildings or re-emerge wearing their waterproof clothing.
The rain didn’t bother Damon that much, he actually prefered it over the sun, it was the sound of rain lightly hitting a glass surface that seemed to instill a calm state of mind and he found his studies would be a lot better when listening to the rain falling. Crossing his arms behind his back and they trudged on, he smiled as he watched Pinchy jump into puddles and splash about, giggling as she continued to enjoy the rain.
They soon came to the edge of town and near Whitetail woods, passing a sign that had a map of the woods which he had been told was the layout for ponies who enjoyed walking in the woods as well as it was the track for a race called ‘the running of the leaves’ which Damon had meant to ask about. Damon let his thoughts drift away as he felt the rain splash over his skull, the feeling was strange and different then having it splash onto flesh but it felt strangely nice, although he began to chuckle when the water trickled into his eye sockets and had to lower his head again.
That’s when he noticed Pinchy was no longer splashing in puddles ahead of him, he quickly glanced around trying to see where she had gone only to hear a branch rustle above him.
“INCOMING MORTAR!”
Pinchy cried with glee before jumping into a large puddle in front of Damon, he let out a startled cry as he was drenched and fell onto his backside, blinking at Pinchy who was in the middle of the water grinning.
“I got you good, Uncle Bones!”
As Pinchy giggled madly, Damon couldn’t help but join in before they both began laughing loudly. He soon stood up and they began to walk down the path again, still giggling to one another.
“Aren't you afraid you’ll get a cold, Uncle Bones?” Pinchy asked, suddenly aware that she had made his clothes soaked, “you must be soaked to the bone!”
“Did your mother tell you to say that?” He asked her.
“Say what?” Pinchy replied, tilting her head.
“Nevermind, and to answer, nah I’ll be fine. Trust me!”
“I’m sorry…” Pinchy said softly.
“It’s okay, Pinches,” Damon smiled down at her, “it was all in good fun.”
Pinchy smiled as they continued to make their way through the wet woods, Damon enjoying the scenery as Pinchy continued to enjoy jumping in the puddles they came across. Eventually, Damon heard Pinchy’s stomach growl and chuckled as she blushed, before he heard another growl.
“See! I’m not the only one who’s hungry!” Pinchy giggled.
“How does that make any sense?” Damon muttered, “I really need to speak to Dorian about this…”
“Who you talking to, Uncle Bones?”
“Just myself Pinches, you want to go find somewhere dry to eat lunch?”
“Okay!”
Walking as quickly as they could, they came across the family picnic area and found a table that was under a shelter and dry. As they sat down, Damon muttered a spell under his breath and a blast of air shot from the ground, blowing his robes and cloak about before suddenly stopping and leaving them dry.
“Wow!” Pinchy exclaimed, “they’re bone dry!”
“Seriously, are you sure your mother didn’t tell you to say that?”
“Say what?” Pinchy asked, hiding a giggle.
Damon eyed her suspiciously, convinced something was afoot but stopped when he heard Pinchy whimper.
“My lunch…” she whimpered.
Sure enough, from all the jumping about in the water, her lunch bag had been leaked into making her sandwich soggy and waterlogged. Damon frowned as Pinchy’s eyes watered up slightly, he knew that Berry had made her a special sandwich for today and Pinchy had been looking forward to it. Quickly, he scooped the filly up and gave her a hug as she sniffled into his robes.
“Hey, come on, Pinches. Its not all that bad,”
“But, my sandwich…”
Damon muttered softly under his breath, just low enough so she didn’t hear and there was a ‘whoosh’ sound from the table. Pinchy turned around and gasped, seeing her sandwich now dry, just like Damon.
“But...but…”
“Magic dear, Pinches, magic,” Damon grinned, “now tuck in, I know how to make this day better!”
Pinchy hugged him tightly with a big grin on her face and sat down to eat her sandwich as Damon leant back against the chair.
“Are we going to go exploring in the Everfree?” Pinchy asked excitedly between mouthfuls.
“Why do you say that?”
“I heard mum telling you we couldn’t go in there, but I’ve always wanted to have an adventure like Daring Do!”
“Who?”
“You don’t know who Daring Do is?!” Pinchy gasped.
“I’m not from this world, remember?” Damon chuckled, booping her on the nose.
“Oh yeah,” Pinchy giggled as she scrunched her nose, “she’s this awesome pony who goes on these awesome adventures!”
“And you want to go on one like her?” Damon asked.
“Well duh! Everypony who reads the books wants to! so can we, Uncle Bones? Pleeeeeeeeeeeease?”
Damon tried to say that he shouldn’t because of what Berry had asked him, but the more he looked at Pinchy’s big eyes and wobbling lip he felt his sternness melt away in a mixture of cutesy goo and sighed with a chuckle.
“I suppose a small walk just on the inside will be okay…”
“YAY!” Pinchy cried, tackling him into a hug, “thank you Uncle Bones!”
Soon after eating lunch, with Damon taking a small plant from his pouch which he explained was a light snack in Cyrium, much to Pinchy’s confusion on why anyone would eat a plant like that. They had continued to walk through the woods and soon came out on the other end of the track, seeing the looming forest in the distance, Damon was having doubts about his earlier statement to Berry about his magic, but he had promised Pinchy a quick walk on the indie of the forest and figured that they would only be an hour or so tops.
Approaching the forest, Pinchy was giggling like mad as she began to tell Damon all the things she wanted to try that Daring Do did in her books and he couldn’t help smile at her ramblings, seeing her this excited was making him feel warm inside and he slowly began to warm up to the idea of exploring, despite the wetness of the rain. Especially if they stayed within eyeshot of the town itself, and besides.
Berry made her way through the town, humming to herself happily. The rain had just died down and she had decided to head out in order to collect some shopping, she arrived at the marketplace which was beginning to become busy once more as more ponies had ventured back outside to carry on with their daily routines. After purchasing some vegetable that she was planning to use in a soup for dinner that evening, she was approached by Rarity.
“Hello there, Berry!” Rarity called, “and how are you today?”
“I’m fine, just picking up some bits and bobs for later on, yourself?” Berry replied.
“I see, and how is Damon settling in?”
“Just fine, he’s spending the day with Pinchy today.”
“Oh?” Rarity asked, “is that so?”
“Mhm, why’d you ask?”
“Oh just asking dear, but you have reminded me of something…” Rarity said, a twinkle in her eye.
“And that is…?” Berry asked suspiciously
“Avast! Tree roots dead ahead!” Pinchy cried, “evasive maneuvers!”
“Aye aye, Cap’n Pinches!” Damon replied.
Damon gripped onto Pinchy’s legs tighter as she gripped his skull and he dramatically veered to the left, avoiding a large root that stood in the way. They had only been in the forest for ten minutes or so before Damon's natural curiosity had gotten the better of him when he spotted a large cave up the side of a nearby mountain, and had decided along with Pinchy that they had to claim in the name of ‘The PinchyBone Empire’.
He decided it would be alright to just explore it, mainly because from its position it still overlooked the town and navigating back to the town wouldn’t be too hard, plus, he was fairly confident his magic would be powerful enough for anything they found, despite his earlier concerns.
“So how long until we get there?” Pinchy asked him.
“I’d say.. fifteen minutes or so, give or take. Then about ten to climb and we could fit in a good half hour exploring before we go home.” Damon replied.
“Yay! Onwards!” Pinchy commanded.
Damon chuckled as he picked up the pace, lightly jobbing as he climbed over some roots and made his way towards the mountain side. Unaware of the watchful eyes watching him from the shadows.
“Let me get this straight, you want me, to convince Damon, into surrendering his robes. Just so you can make him some new ones?” Berry asked Rarity.
“Yes darling, that isn’t to much to ask, is it?” Rarity replied.
Berry blinked, swearing she saw Rarity’s eye twitch slightly.
“But… why? Damon already said he doesn't want to get rid of the robes for new ones, I think they’re sentimental or something.”
“Oh nonsense, stallions-”
“Men,” Berry corrected.
“Right… men, anyway. Men don’t know what they really want do they dear? It’s up to us mares to show them what they really want in life,” Rarity explained, a visible twitch in her eye.
“Rarity… are you okay?” Berry asked a little concerned.
“Hmm? Oh of course I am dear Berry, just didn’t sleep much last night. It wasn’t like I’ve been obsession for the past two nights about his robes and how much I must get him some more fashionable ones. Heavens no.”
Berry stared at the white unicorn, a little uneasily as she backed up slightly.
“Okay… well… I’ll talk to him later and see what he says, okay?”
“Well then… I’ll see you later then?” Berry smiled nervously.
“Ta-ta darling, ta-ta!”
Berry turned around and quickly made her way home, wondering just what the heck was up with Rarity. She figured she’d stop by and see Twilight, given how close she and Rarity were, Berry figured that if anyone knew if Rarity was acting up, Twilight would.
“Oh yes… dear Damon, oh yes,” Rarity said as turned around walking to her boutique, “I will make you new robes… and you’re going to love them!”
She started to chuckle softly as she entered her shop and closed the door before using her magic to turn on the lights, revealing over a dozen bipedal mannequins all dressed up in bright, multi coloured robes. The product of an all night clothe making binge.
“You will wear my robes Damon…” she cackled, “and you will love it!”
“Hold on Pinches!” Damon shouted.
Pinchy clung tighter to Damon as he held her to his chest, running from the now very angry manticore. As they had approached the mountain, Damon had gotten spooked by a low growl and threw a small fireball in the direction as a warning shot, he was expecting the ball of fire to sail over the owner of the growl, not slam directly into them. So now he and Pinchy were running up the mountain side being chased by a half blinded, and furious manticore. He had thought about facing it one on one but because he had Pinchy, he didn’t want to risk getting her hurt so decided to try and out maneuver the beast in hopes to deter it chasing them further.
“I’m sorry alright? I didn’t mean to hit you!” Damon shouted back.
As he was expecting, this didn’t yield and resulted in a roar from the manticore. Pinchy clung tighter to Damon as she whimpered slightly as he lept over a boulder in the way, they soon could see the mouth of the cave approaching and they lept over another boulder only to come face to face with the wall of the mountain, trapping them. Wheeling on the spot, Damon heard the manticore snarling and put Pinchy behind him and his hands engulfed in flames, seeing he now had no choice but to fight it.
“Stay behind me Pinches, shut your eyes… I don’t want you to see this…”
Pinchy whimpered and nodded, hiding behind him as Damon charged his spell up, suddenly, they heard the manticore yelp and the sounds of its paws hitting the ground and running away soon followed, Damon was confused as to why the manticore was no longer chasing them, peeking over the rock to see it disappear into the bush.
“That… was odd,” Damon muttered, “you ok Pinches?”
Damon turned round to see Pinchy wasn’t behind him anymore, rather, she was standing on the boulder shaking her hoof in the direction of where the manticore had run off.
“You better run! The brave and fearless explorer Captain Pinches fears no beast!”
He sigh and shook his head with a soft smile, walking over to her and picking her up before wiggling a finger into her stomach causing the coated filly to giggle uncontrollably.
“You’re adorable, you know that?” He chuckled.
“N-no!” Pinchy cried between giggles, “I-I’m brave and f-fearless!”
Damon pressed on with the tickle attack, making Pinchy writhe and wriggle and giggle happily as she tried to break free.
“Nope, you’re adorable,” Damon insisted, “admiiiiiiit iiiiit!~” he said in a sing song voice.
“N-nooo! T-the fearless never w-will admit it!” Pinchy replied defiantly.
“Is that so?” Damon smirked, “okay… I guess I can just give up.”
Damon pulled his hand back and pretended to look away, whistling nonchalantly as Pinchy eyed him suspiciously, as Damon placed her on the ground she gave a grin of victory and just as she was about to move, he swooped down and picked her up again, holding her to his chest like an infant and began a relentless tickle attack on her.
“Nooooo!” Pinchy wailed in between giggles.
“Haha! I have you now, Hooded Shadow!” Damon laughed.
“Okay okay! I give in!” Pinchy giggled as she wriggled in his hold, “but I’ll get my revenge, Skeletal Overlord!”
“I know you will, Pinches, I know you will,” Damon smiled, stopping his tickle attack and placing Pinchy on the ground gently.
“So what do we do now, Uncle Bones?” Pinchy asked.
Before Damon could reply, an angry cry echoed from inside the cave although very faintly. Both he and Pinchy peered into the cave as another angry cry echoed followed by a third, Damon tried to think on why they sounded familiar when Pinchy gasped suddenly.
“That sounds like the cutie mark crusaders!”
“The who?” Damon asked.
“You met them yesterday?” Pinchy said.
“Oh right, them. Why would they be inside the mountain? More importantly, how the h-” Damon stopped himself from saying ‘hell’ and corrected himself, “ blue blazes did they get into the forest without harm?”
“Oh, they always seem to be in the forest for some reason,” Pinchy replied, “it's just a normal thing around her really.”
“How is that normal?” Damon questioned, “you know what? I don’t care, lets just go see what’s wrong.”
Damon began to walk into the cave, but he stopped when he noticed Pinchy hadn’t moved, he turned round to see her looking away slightly and gently kicking the ground.
“Something wrong, Pinches?” He asked.
“Can you… can you carry me? I’m a little scared of the dark…” Pinchy asked.
“Of course I can, climb aboard!” Damon grinned as he knelt down.
Pinchy giggled as she climbed into Damon’s arm, Damon smiled as he waited for her to get comfortable.
“But how are we going to see?” Pinchy asked.
“Magic,” He grinned.
Damon began to mutter under his breath and a ball of light shot out of his hand with a light pop and floated above the pair, illuminating the area in a soft light blue glow.
“Wow… its so pretty…” Pinchy whispered as she stared at the glowing orb.
“Mhm, now lets go find those fillies and find out what’s with all the ruckus.”
Pinchy nodded as they began to enter the cave, the little ball of light following them overhead.
“Ah told yah, we’re lost!” Applebloom cried.
“Are not! I know exactly where we are!” Scootaloo protested.
“Then where are we, Scoots?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“... Okay fine, I don’t know where we are, happy?!” Scootaloo grumbled.
“Well, no, no ah ain’t! How do ya think we’re gonna get home now?” Applebloom asked.
“You ain’t!”
The three fillies jumped in shock from the low grunt that came behind them and Applebloom swung the lantern she was carrying in its direction. They screamed as they back up from the tall, bipedal looking creature, it had dark green skin and fangs jutting from his mouth, a grubby looking beard clinging to its face. It had two long pointed ears and several warts dotted its face and it appearing to be wearing some form of basic armour, that’s when they noticed the creature was carrying a, if not poorly made, sword.
“W-what are you?” Scootaloo asked it, swallowing a lump in her throat.
“Not important, important fing is dat you free is gunna be our dinnar! Right boyz?!”
The three heard jeers behind the creature as more of them came out f the darkness, all various sizes and shapes but the one thing that remained the same was, apart form their ugly appearance, was that they had a strange red skull crudely painted on their armour.
The creatures charged the fillies armed with rope as they screamed at the top of their lungs.
“I wonder how deep this cave actually goes, let alone how far down the cutie mark crusaders are...” Damon said aloud, taking care as they walked over some rocks jutting up.
By now, they had been walking down the tunnels for a little while now, using the sounds of the arguing fillies as a guiding point. With each step he took, Damon was silently contemplating explaining their day out to Berry given at the rate of how things were going, they were going to be a while before they got home.
“W-will there be any m-monsters in here, Uncle Bones?” Pinchy asked nervously.
“I doubt it, I can’t sense anything magical in here and besides, I thought you were brave and fearless?” Damon grinned.
“I am!” Pinchy replied, “the bravest pony ever!”
“More so than Daring Do?” Damon asked.
“... Maybe not like Daring Do…” Pinchy admitted.
“Well you do have one thing she doesn't,” Damon said, turning down the left of the pathway they were on.
“What’s that?”
“Adorableness.”
Without warning, Damon began to tickle Pinchy in his arms again much to her protests. He chuckle and began to let up, giving her a little hug before he came to an abrupt stop, his head snapping up.
“Uncle Bones? What’s wrong?” She asked him.
“I’m not sure… something doesn't feel right…”
As soon as the words left his mouth, they heard the loud screams of terror of the cutie mark crusaders followed by the loud jeering of something unknown, Pinchy clung to Damon tightly not knowing what was going on. Damon, however, felt his body go cold as he processed the other sounds.
“No… can it be?” He muttered, “Pinches, hold on.”
Pinchy nodded and clung tighter to him as he broke into a sprint, the ball of light struggling to keep up with him.
The creatures were dancing around a campfire, laughing merrily as they drank from wooden tankards, singing a deafening and awful sounding song as the trapped filles trembled in the small, crude cage nearby.
“W-what are they going to do to us?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“They already said!” Scootaloo hissed, “they’re going to eat us!”
“Like in a sandwich, or a pie?” Sweetie Belle whimpered.
“Ah don’t want to be ah pie! Ah don’t like gravy…” Applebloom cried.
“SHUT IT!” One of the creatures barked.
It smacked the cage with a wooden spoon that it had been using on the pot that was dangling over the fire, grumbling to himself.
“I don’t want to be eaten…” Sweetie Belle sniffled.
The girls were about to cry when they felt the cage being tugged into the darkness, they turned and were about to scream when they noticed that the thing pulling on the cage was none of the Damon, who was partially invisible. He quickly put his finger to his face shushing them as he slowly pulled the cage away from the fire, amazingly, without alerting any of the creatures.
Soon he had managed to get them far enough away and opened the cage door, silently picking them up along with Pinchy, who had been hiding in the shadows by a rock, and begun to sneak away from the camp. Just as they started to head down the corridor, Damon cringed as an angry roar rumbled behind them.
“OI WHERE DA FUCK IS OUR DINNAR?!”
“SOME GITS HAD IT! FIND EM BOYZ!”
“Hold on tight!” Damon whispered.
As the fillies clung tightly to his robes, he began to sprint as fast as he could down the tunnel, soon joining up with his orb light which he had left a little way before finding the makeshift camp. Behind them they could hear the thunder of the creatures charging after them shouting and roaring loudly.
“M-mister Damon, what are they?!” Scootaloo cried.
“Goblins, nasty creatures,” Damon replied, taking a sharp left.
“Goblins?” Pinchy asked.
“Aye, and judging by their armour. They’re from the Dalmora mountains.”
“Dalmora mountains?” Sweetie asked, confused, “I’ve never heard of them.”
“Wouldn’t expect you to,” Damon replied, dipping down another tunnel as the cries behind them got softer.
“Why?” Applebloom asked.
“Can we hold the questions off until we’re safe?” Damon grunted, “it’s distracting me from saving your lives.”
The girls quickly remained hush as Damon suddenly ducked into a small passageway and cancelled the orb light, soon after, the mob of Goblins thundered past with their torches, swearing every curse word under Celestia’s sun before disappearing down into a different tunnel. The four let out a collective sigh as Damon re summoned his light orb and began to backtrack his way through the tunnel.
“So… why wouldn’t we know about the Dalmora mountains?” Pinchy asked him.
“Because, the Dalmora mountains are in Cyrium. My world,” Damon replied, “and I think I have a sneaky suspicion on how they got to Equestria…
Berry slowly walked back to her home, a little confused as to the behaviour of Rarity still, and now the behaviour of Twilight. After her rather interesting encounter with Rarity, she stopped by the library to ask Twilight what was up with Rarity when Spike had answered the door.
“Oh, hey, Berry, how’s tricks?” Spike asked.
“Hello, Spike,” Berry replied with a smile, “I’m fine thank you, is Twilight around I need to… speak… with her…”
Berry stopped and blinked in confusion, she starred as Twilight sat hunched over a desk, a manic grin on her face and her mane slightly askew as several scrolls filled to the brink with scribbles floated around her and lay on the floor, she had a crazy look in her eye as she furiously scribbled down on blank scrolls with a quill pen.
“Is… she okay?” Berry asked.
“Honestly… I don’t know, but I’d give fair warning to you know who?” Spike replied.
“What do you mean? Da-”
Spike shushed her by putting a claw to her lips and looked over at Twilight with a panicked look, Twilight slowly rotated her head towards the two and both Berry and Spike felt a cold shiver go down their spines as Twilight’s eye twitched.
“What was that?” Twilight asked sweetly.
“N-nothing Twi, go back to your work,” Spike replied with a nervous tone.
Twilight’s eye twitched again as she went back to scribbling down as Spike closed the door, placing him and Berry outside.
“She’s been writing questions to ask,” he paused in order to whisper quietly, “Damon, and hasn’t stopped in over three hours. So my advice, tell him what’s happening and brace himself. I haven’t seen Twilight like this since she did an all day and night study session for a test due the next day.”
“Okay… I’ll bear that in mind, Spike… thanks,” Berry replied, processing everything.
“Good, and may the Princesses have mercy on his soul…” Spike mumbled walking back into the library.
Berry blinked before turning around and walking back down the road to her house, still trying to process everything. As she arrived home and entered the building, she sighed and headed to the kitchen in order to begin preparation of the evenings meal. She caught sight of the picture of Pinchy she kept on her counter, which had the filly grinning with a huge smile as she stood beside a Royal Guard, a photo from a trip to Canterlot the previous year.
“I wonder how their day out is going?” Berry wondered to herself with a smile.
“HURRY UP, DEY IS GETTING AWAY!”
“GIVE US BACK OUR DINNAR, BONE MAN!”
“I just had to take a flaming right…” Damon grumbled.
He was now running away from the Goblins again, the fillies screaming in terror. Soon after losing the Goblins, he had somehow managed to do a complete u-turn and run right into them again and they soon started up the chase although this time, they were too close for Damon to out run and fool them again. However, luck wasn’t on his side.
“Oh come on!” Damon cried.
He skidded to a halt in front of a dead end with only a couple of rocks jutting from the ground and spun round hearing the jeers and laughs of the Goblins as they slowly approached him.
“We ain’t got no beef wiff you, Bone man, but if ya don’t ‘and us our dinnar… we is gunna kill you as well” One of them said.
“You’re not going to eat my niece and her friends…” Damon replied coldly, “I’ll make sure of that…”
“Wot you gunna do, eh?” The Goblin laughed along with the others, “der’s only one of ya!”
“Girls… get behind the rock,” he said quickly, “I don’t want you to see this…”
The girls obeyed him without question and hide behind the rock, huddling together, shivering slightly. Damon took a sharp intake of air before exhaling and let his hands glow, they soon exploded into fire that illuminated the entire area, making the Goblins back up slightly.
“WOT DA FUCK? HE CAN USE MAGIC?!” A Goblin cried,
Damon chuckled as he took a defensive pose, his flaming hands in front of him as he gave the Goblins a wicked grin.
Berry shook her head as she wandered through the town, when she had gotten home she had completely forgotten about getting any kind of dessert for the evening and she had wanted to make Pinchy and Damon each something special to round of their day out as they told her the days events. With that in mind, she had headed out and decided to first see if Applejack was in the marketplace, figuring some apple pie would be a nice start for desert.
Still, she couldn’t shake off the earlier events with Rarity and Twilight. Their behaviour concerning Damon had been… odd, even odder than she would have assumed. She knew from the meeting that Twilight was itching to ask more questions given her studious nature and Rarity had clearly been annoyed at not getting the chance to create a bunch of clothing for him, something Berry had to admit she found rather funny. Still, it was odd.
Shaking her head and dismissing it, she arrived at the marketplace to find the pony she was looking for. Applejack.
“Fine thanks,” Berry replied, “I just came to see if you have any apple pies I could buy for Pinchy and Damon’s desert later.”
Berry saw Applejack smile at her but there was something behind that smile. Determination.
“Well shoot, ah don’t have any on me right now… but ah can head on home and whip up a couple of ya later if you like?” Applejack replied.
“Oh, I don’t want to bother you, Applejack…” Berry replied.
“Nonsense, Rarity may be the Element of Generosity but that doesn't mean ah can’t be generous in mah own way!” Applejack insisted, “I’ll come bye later on this evening with a couple of pies.”
“Well… okay then, thank you. How much do I owe you?” Berry asked.
“S’on the house,” Applejack smiled.
Berry thanked her and smiled as she said goodbye and headed towards sugarcube corner to but the final dessert item for later on.
“Least she’s acting normal…” Berry muttered.
Applejack watched her leave before her smile fell from her face and a wicked and mischievous grin replaced it.
“Oh ah’ll have them pies ready… and Damon is gunna enjoy them… no pony insults mah apples… worm or no worm!”
The lead Goblin grunted as several bolts bounced off Damon’s ward once more, doing little to no damage. Damon responded once more by using his free hand and shooting a ball of fire at the Goblins who had sinced taken makeshift cover, this back and forth had been going on for a couple of minutes with Damon being able to land a few shots on the Goblins, who had been dragged away or left for dead as the fire burned their flesh from their bones leaving a stinking burnt corpse on the ground. Damon was desperately trying to think of an idea to get out. As soon as his hands had engulfed, some of the Goblin had produced small makeshift crossbows and fired them at him, forcing him to erect a ward to protect him and the girls cover.
Normally, he would have been able to take them out with ease but because of the girls, he wasn’t able to rush in spells ablaze and sword drawn for fear that the Goblins could try and flank him and attack the girls. He cursed under his breath as he began to charge another fireball spell up, determined to at least take out the lead Goblin.
“DIS AIN’T WORKIN’ FALL BACK BOYZ, WE NEED TO GET DA BOSS AND DA OTHERS!”
Damon blinked as the Goblins got up and began to fall back down the tunnel, all the while firing off bolts at him until their heavy thudding disappeared, thats when he began to panic slightly.
“A-are they gone, Uncle Bones?” Pinchy asked nervously.
“We need to leave. Now,” Damon replied picking her up.
“Why? What’s the matter? You could’ve easily beaten them!” Sweetie Belle said.
“Not if they have a Boss with them,” Damon said, only just being able to pick the other three girls up.
“What’s so bad about a Boss?” Scootaloo asked.
Damon quickly started running down the tunnel ignoring her question, eventually coming to a fork where they had run into the goblins originally and headed down the opposite tunnel, his light orb floating close by.
“Mister Damon?” Scootaloo asked again.
“I’ll answer later, right now we need to get out of here and fast.”
“But why?” Applebloom asked a little scared.
Again Damon didn’t answer, he was more focused on getting out of the mountain with the four fillies alive and didn’t have time to play twenty questions. They soon reached a large cave that had several tunnels connecting and Damon looked to each of them, his panic rising steadily.
“Uncle Bones…” Pinchy asked, “I’m scared…”
Damon put the fillies on the ground and saw they were all trembling slightly, he sighed before giving them a group hug.
“I know girls, but you need to be brave for me okay? Applebloom, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle. Didn’t your siblings risk their lives to save Equestria? I even heard that Rarity kicked a manticore in the face! Who’ve though eh?” Damon grinned, “I would’ve thought she would freak out from a dirt hoof touching a smelly beast.”
The girls giggled softly at this as Damon turned to Pinchy and smiled at her.
“And, Pinches… your mother befriended a talking skeleton that everyone else thought was a monster and was terrified of, that’s pretty brave.”
Pinchy sniffled and nodded with a smile.
“And besides… we need to inform the Princes of this and it’ll be a very important mission, what would you think Daring Do would do right now? Would she be scared?”
The fillies gasped and growled, stomping the ground with their hooves.
“No!”
“So are we going to be like little foals and cry?”
“No!”
“Are we going to be fearless explorers like Daring Do!?
“No!”
Damon looked at them with a grin as they realised what they said.
“We mean, YES!”
“Then lets find a way out of this mountain!” Damon cried.
“YES SIR!” The filles saluted in unison with a giggle.
“But… how do we get out?” Pinchy asked.
He booped her nose with a bony finger before pointing down a tunnel.
“That way.”
“Really?” The girls gasped.
“No, but the air is doesn't smell so foul here, when in doubt, Pinches, always follow your nose.”
He picked them up and began to head down the tunnel he had pointed to, he had contemplated the idea of teleporting but he hadn’t fully mastered that field of magic yet and was only able to teleport over short distances and that took a lot of energy for him to perform. Not to mention he wasn’t sure how many bodies he could teleport at onc. He smiled as the fillies chatted to themselves clearly now calmer although on the outside, he was acting as if everything was fine.
In actual fact, he was truly concerned about getting out of there now, especially now that he knew a Goblin Boss was in Equestria.
The door to sugarcube opened and the little bell over rang softly as Berry entered the shop with a smile, the cool air of the air conditioning blowing over her as she did. From behind the counter she could see Mr and Mrs Cake who were serving a customer and she queued up behind them. When it was her turn to be served, she greeted the couple with a warm smile to which they returned.
“Hello there, Berry, what can we do for you today?”
Berry swore she heard a clang behind them as if someone had dropped something but ignored it.
“Good afternoon, I was wondering if you had any special kind of dessert cakes I could buy for Pinchy and Damon?”
This time, the clang was louder and followed by a crash which both Mr and Mrs Cake noticed and looked a little worried.
“Uh… sure B-berry, what kind of cake?” Mr Cake asked.
“Well… as may or may not know depending on what Pinkie’s already told you you know, Damon’s never eaten a cupcake before,” she started ignoring the gasp of the two bakers, “and I figured that I could buy him and Pinchy one each for when they come home later.”
Suddenly, Pinkie appeared behind the counter, her mane was flat and a small smile on her face. the Cakes looked at her in silent fear before she spoke to them.
“Why don’t you two go and have a lie down… I can handle things from here,” Pinkie said in a flat monotone voice.
“O-okay then…” Mrs Cake replied.
Berry watched in concern as the two left the area and headed out of the room, each sharing a nervous glance between one another before they headed up a flight of stairs that lead to their bedroom on the top floor as she slowly looked at Pinkie who was smiling at her.
“So… you want to buy Damon a cupcake?” She said coldly.
“That’s right… and one for Pinchy to,” Berry nervously replied.
“GREAT!” Pinkie squealed, her mane returning to its normal look before bouncing into the kitchen.
Berry blinked in confusion at Pinkie’s sudden change in mood and tone, she did the same thing the other day at the meeting and sighed shaking it off.
“Another one… great…” she grumbled remembering Rarity and Twilight.
Soon, Pinkie returned with two cupcakes on a tray and Berry couldn’t help grin. One was bright pink, covered in sprinkles and hearts and had a strawberry on the top. Berry assumed that it was for Pinchy and she looked at the other which was clearly chocolate flavoured, though she was a little unsure of it. The amount of chocolate icing, sauce, sprinkles and grated chocolate as well as two sticks of a chocolate bar made her worry for Damon’s health before realising he was technically a skeleton, therefore would be fine.
“Wow, Pinkie!” She exclaimed, “they look amazing! How much do I owe you?”
“Oh nothing, think of it as Damon’s first taster for what he will find at his party tomorrow!” Pinkie giggled, “I’m sure he will… love it.”
Berry felt a little cold on hearing that last line but shrugged it off, it was Pinkie after all. Though she still had some questions. Thanking her one last time, Berry took the cupcakes, which Pinkie had wrapped up in a special box each, and left the shop as Pinkie waved goodbye.
“Oh yes… he will love my cupcake… and soon… he won’t be able to resist the sugary goodness ever again!” Pinkie cackled, her mane flattening and her eye twitching slightly as she headed back into the kitchen.
A small group of Goblins were crowded around in a tight huddle muttering to one another in front of what appeared to a small cave that was within the actual cave they were in.
“You pulled da short straw, do it!” A Goblin hissed.
“But!” A little Goblin protested.
“Just fucking do it!”
The little Goblin swallowed hard as he approached the makeshift wooden door that covered a large hole, trembling in his armour as he stared up at the sign saying ‘DO NOT DISTURB’ written in what appeared to be red ink before he nervously knocked on the door with a trembling hand.
“Boss? You der Boss?” He asked.
Behind him stood several other Goblins each equally looking a little terrified, but thankful they hadn’t pulled the short straw.
“Boss?” The Goblin called out again.
Before he got an answer, the door was booted off its makeshift hinge, crashing into the face of the Goblin forcing him to the ground as the door fell on top of him. He let out a squeak of surprise before it was silenced by a yelp a sa large boot slammed down on the door, crushing his chest slightly.
“WOT DID I SAY ‘BOUT DISTURBIN’ MOI NAP!?” The Boss roared.
The Goblins watched in fear as a large Goblin, easily triple the size of the Goblins there, stood out of the doorway, his large belly struggling to stay within his armour, a crude metal helm with twin horns sticking out at jagged angles. He had gruffy brown hair all over his arms and a large scruffy beard hung from his chin, in his right hand was a large club made of metal with several spikes jutting out of it. His long nose, dotted with warts, stuck out at a slight twisted anger as were his long ears, sharp fangs protruding from his mouth upwards as he snarled.
“WELL?!”
“B-boss, we gots ah problem…”
“Something’s not right…” Damon muttered.
“Why’s that?” Pinchy asked.
“I can’t explain it properly… but… I can feel a slight trace of magic in the air, something that is familiar to me but at the same time I simply can’t explain where I know it’s from.”
“That’s weird…” Scootaloo said.
Applebloom bopped her on the head as sweetie Belle giggled beside them, Damon had put them down back on the floor and they were walking in front of him, after some time walking down the tunnel, they had come to a new one which Damon recognised as being the one he and Pinchy were in earlier when they had first descended into the mountain and let out a sigh of relief. He had been wondering what the hell to tell Berry when they would get home as to what the other three would say to their siblings, he contemplated lying but he knew that if there was one person you never lie to, it was a mother. He shuddered at what Berry would do to him when he told her about their adventure.
“Whatcha thinking about, Uncle Bones?”
“Oh, just how your mother is going to kill me.”
“But you're ah skeleton… how can you die?” Applebloom asked.
“She would find a way…” Damon shuddered.
Pinchy looked at the other three who only offered a confused shrug as they carried on, Damon, however, was unable to shake off the annoyance of not being able to recognise the magic signature that lingered in the air. He groaned in frustration as he let out a sigh.
“At least we’ll be out of this damn mountain soon… then comes the hard part of explaining to Berry the days events… that’s going to be fun…”
Damon was so deep in his thoughts that he didn’t hear the sounds coming from behind him until it was too late, something slammed into his head with a loud thunk causing him to cry out in pain and fall to the floor, the last thing Damon heard was the sounds of the girls screaming and laughter.
Damon groaned as he slowly woke up to the sounds of jeers and roaring, rubbing his head as he got to his feet before looking around his surroundings. He was in an arena of sorts and all around him were at least twenty Goblins of various sizes and shapes, all jeering and whooping as they roared down at him.
He then saw the four fillies all shivering in fear in a small pen near the edge of the arena being guarded by a couple of Goblins, tears in their eyes. He growled and stood up, ready to fight whatever it was the Goblins clearly wanted him to fight. Damon heard the low chuckle behind him and turned around, his pupils shrinking as he stared at the giant Goblin stepping into the arena with him.
The reason why Damon was nervous about Gobblin Boss’s was, unlike their underlings, Boss’s tended to be fairly resistant to magic attacks due to their size, age and toughness from all the fighting they had done in their life to get to be a Boss. Boss’s also had the nasty habit of being strong, if not stronger, than a mountain troll and Damon wasn’t what you would call and amble fighter, relying more on his agility and quick offensive spells to get the better of opponents.
“So… you must be the Boss right?”
“You is gunna pay for running mah boyz dinnar, fer killing some of dem AND worst of all. Disturbin’ moi nap!” He roared.
Damon looked from the Boss to the fillies and then back again before cursing under his breath, he just had to go explore the mountain. But then again, if he hadn’t done so then the cutie mark crusaders would have become Goblin chow by now, and at least he had a chance to save them. All he had to do was trick the Goblin Boss and pray he bought it.
The Goblin crowd roared in approval as they banged their swords and hammers against their metal armour.
“Any last words, Bone man?” The Boss laughed, raising his club.
“WAIT! I have a proposal for you!” Damon suddenly shouted.
“Da fuck? Just kill ‘im Boss-”
The Goblin in the crowd who interrupted received a threatening growl from the Boss and shrunk back in his seat, keeping quiet as the Boss snorted and turned his attention back to Damon.
“Wot kind of proposition?” He asked.
“Here’s my proposal, you fight me one on one, my sword against your club, no assistance from the others. If I win, you let me and the fillies go free.”
“An’ if I win?” The Boss growled.
“You get my servitude…but you must let the fillies go” Damon was interrupted by jeers of disapproval of the Goblins till the Boss raised his hand silencing them.
Damon silently prayed the Boss would fall for his trick, he had said that no assistance from the others implying the other Goblins, but he didn’t say his magic. He hoped that the Boss was stupid enough not to figure out the trick
“Could always use a magic user… could be strongest der is! Alright Bone man, you gotcha self a deal!”
The Goblins roared in approval as Damon shook hands with the Boss, the fillies looking terrified as they were placed in a pen and looked at Damon with worry. He smile to them and winked, somehow making them feel reassured.
“There’s just one thing I want to know though…” Damon started.
“Wots dat?”
“How did you get here in the first place?”
“Oh that would be me, I was bored and brought them here for entertainment purposes you see. Hey that rhymed!”
Damon cringed at the voice, knowing damn well who it belonged to, he slowly looked up to the tip of a pointed boulder as a mist swirled before forming into a familiar form grinning a twisted and mischievous grin before it burst into a manic laugh.
Damon glared at Dorian as the demented man jumped from the rock and landed with a soft thud. Dorian grinned and walked over to Damon whilst twirling his cane and patted him on the back.
“Oh do lighten up, Damon. You’re being such a bore!”
“Lighten up? Firstly, you turn me into a damn lich! Secondly, you send me to the bed of one of the rulers and, last but not least! YOU PUT THREE INNOCENT CHILDREN AT RISK!”
“Foals,” Dorian corrected.
“Whatever! The point is. I’m furious. So I’ll ask you one question, why did you bring Dalmora Goblins, with a boss no less, to Equestria?!”
“I was bored,”
“Yes, I know. But I know there has to be another reason so just tell me!”
“STOP TALKIN’!” The Boss growled, “OI WANT’A SMASH ‘IS FUCKING ‘EAD IN!”
Dorian turned to the large Goblin and waggled his finger dismissively at him.
“Patience, Urgot my giant green abomination,” Dorian tutted.
The boss growled but reluctantly stood down. Goblins may be stupid, but even they aren’t stupid enough to try and attack a God.
“Okie doke, now where was I?” Dorian muttered tapping his chin.
“Explaining yourself,” Damon growled impatiently.
“Ah yes! Thank you dear boy.”
Damon stared at him for a few moments waiting for the mad man to talk.
“Well?” Damon said.
“Oh! You want to hear it now?” Dorian asked.
“Oh for the love of Varlos, YES!” Damon shouted.
“Tough.”
“What?”
“You heard me boy…” Dorian’s voice grew disturbingly cold, “you’re beginning to test my patience… if you do not do as asked then I will just keep bringing playmates for you to have fun with.”
Damon stared at the God as he struggled to stop himself shaking, something was different about Dorian. And it terrified him.
“Now!” Dorian suddenly shouted, his voice returning to normal,” you have some fun now okay? Try not to break it!”
Damon felt Dorian steal a glance at something on his chest before he vanished into thin air, he boss took this as his cue to attack and with a mighty roar he brought his club down onto Damon. He quickly rolled out of the way as the massive weapon slammed into the ground much to the crowds enjoyment.
“UNCLE BONES!” Pinchy cried out.
“It’s okay, Pinches.” Damon replied looking over at her, “Everything’s under—”
Damon was sent flying into the wall of the arena as the boss’s club slammed into him with a crack. He fell to the floor and groaned before standing up and shaking his head, wincing as he felt one of his broken ribs.
“HAHAHA! DIS IS TOO EASY!” Urgot roared, “OI THOUGHT MAGES WOULD BE A CHALLENGE!”
Damon snarled as he darted around the boss and channeled his magic into his hands ready to cast a spell. Urgot swung his club to try and smack Damon’s midsection again but this time he rolled out of the way as the massive weapon swung over head, he quickly retaliated by blasting a fireball into Urgot’s back. Making the large Goblin grunt in anger.
“HOLD STILL!” He roared.
“I DIDN’T KEEP STILL FOR LUNA, HELL IF I’M KEEPING STILL FOR YOU!” Damon shouted.
Urgot swung his leg into Damon catching him off guard and sending him into the ground with a thud. Damon groaned in pain as the kick had struck him where the mace had earlier and stood up, only to jump back as the mace came down again and cracked the ground. Muttering under his breath Damon summoned a blade from thin air and charged at Urgot.
The Goblin snorted as he brought his foot up before driving it down in an effort to crush the mage but Damon used his small size to his advantage and side stepped the massive foot. Taking advantage of the situation, he quickly swung his sword and cut into Urgot’s leg and continued to run, rolling underneath the goblin and behind him.
Damon quickly spun round and with his free hand launched a barrage of fireballs at the Boss’s back, each one exploding on contact as Urgot roared out in anger. Before he could react, Damon was smacked again by the club and was sent flying across the arena. Tumbling in the ground as he cried out in pain.
As he tried to get up, Urgot stormed over and quickly grabbed Damon by his leg. He brought him up over his head and slammed the mage into the ground hard before doing it again and throwing Damon back across the arena.
Damon coughed as he winced in pain and stood up. He had several cracked ribs and his arm was broken. He silently thanked the Gods that for once, being a lich was working out thanks to the damage resistance they had. Urgot stomped over and swung his club ready for another attack. Damon rose his good hand up and quickly cast a ward spell just as Urgot brought his club down on him, making him fall to one knee.
Urgot laughed as he kept bringing his club down over and over on Damon’s ward, each hit causing him to wince as he felt the spell breaking.
“YOU IS WEAK, BONE MAN” ”
He laughed loudly before a wicked formed on his face.
“IN FACT! FUCK YOUR PROPOSITION, I’M GUNNA ENJOY USING YER BONES TO PICK ME TEEF WIFF ONCE I EAT DEM PONIES! BOYZ? START COOKING!”
Damon’s eyes went wide as the girls began screaming as the Goblins cackled and advanced on them. All the sounds around him were blocked out as he stared at the fillies. He felt something inside of him burn, burn with nothing but pure anger. Kalanar had him that a mage can draw power from their emotions and warned him of the dangers of doing so. But he didn’t care at this point.
“NO!”
He let out a roar as a burst of magic channelled itself into his arms and down to his hands. Suddenly, Damon’s whole body was consumed in red flames, leaving only two black holes where his eyes were, as he blasted the ward spell upwards that disarmed the club from the boss who stumbled backwards in surprise.
Damon slowly stood back up on his legs as everyone in the cave kept their eyes on him. He slowly advanced towards Urgot as his injuries started to heal, Urgot was pressing his back up against the arena wall in confusion and slight terror.
“Y-YOU FINK YOU CAN SCARE ME?! I’M BOSS URGOT! TOP GOBLIN IN WARLORD URGROG’S CLAN!”
Urgot scrambled for his club nearby and roared a he brought it down onto Damon. Damon merely raised his hand and the club bounced of him before he shot a blast of fire at the club, disintegrating it.
Urgot’s eyes went wide as he backed against the wall. Damon chuckled to himself as he turned to the girls.
“Look away…”
They didn’t need telling twice. They shielded themselves as Damon slowly turned his attention back to Urgot, he raised a hand and Urgot found his limbs pinned by magic to the arena wall.
“L-Look we woz only messin’ wiff ya!” Urgot stuttered, “y-you understand right—”
Urgot was interrupted as his mouth was forced shut by magic and Damon quickly blasted his hands at him, sending a barrage of fire into the Goblin boss. His screams of pain were muffled as the fire consumed his entire body and violently shook, desperately trying to free himself.
As quickly as it had started, the flames retracted from Urgot’s body revealing his charred corpse hanging limply from the wall. The stench of burnt flesh filled the air as Damon’s body returned to normal and he panted heavily before falling to one knee.
He slowly rose to his feet and staggered over to the girls who were still shielding themselves. He carefully scooped them up and held them tightly as Pinchy whispered.
“Is it over?”
“Yes, Pinches…”
“What did you do?” Scootaloo asked.
“Not important… it’s time to take you four home,”
The girls didn’t question him. Thanks to Damon muffling Urgot’s mouth, they hadn’t heard his pained screams and only heard the blast of fire. As they walked down the tunnels in silence, leaving the surprised Goblins behind them, Damon coughed slightly.
He groaned before falling forwards and crashing to the floor. The girls fell from his grip and tumbled on the ground before rushing over to Damon.
“Uncle Bones!” Pinchy cried.
She received no response other than a soft groan.
Pinchy felt her panic rising as she and the others heard the cries of the Goblins behind her. Clearly not happy their boss was just killed and fueled by their own rage.
“Aww, the poor dickens used up all of his magic energy,” a voice tutted behind them.
They turned to see Dorian behind them frowning. He ignored their stares and walked over to Damon’s body and knelt down beside it, tilting his head. Dorian slapped Damon’s head and received a groan in response.
“Ah good! He’s alive,” Dorian laughed, “silly little bugger…”
Dorian tapped the end of his cane on Damon’s head and a green mist seeped over his body. He stood up and turned to the three fillies with a demented grin.
“There we go! Gave him a little boost of energy to get him and you lot home.”
“H-how can we trust you?” Pinchy asked nervously.
“I may be annoyed that he didn’t do as he was told… but I need the lad for an important mission, a mission for the good of everyone. Nay! The world!” Dorian declared dramatically.
Pinchy and the others just stared at him. A little confused and scared. But mostly scared.
“Anywho, I have to get rid of these useless things,” he indicated the charging horde of Goblins that were getting closer and closer, “so it’s toodle-oo for now! Do take care and come again!”
With a flash of green, the fillies and Damon vanished from the cave. Dorian smiled as he turned to the Goblins who came to a halt and growled at him.
“MOVE HUMIE! WE WANNA KILL DA BONE MAN!”
“HE KILLED OUR BOSS!”
Dorian rolled his eyes as the Goblins roared and shouted at him to move.
“Afraid not my dear fellows…” his voice getting colder, “you failed your task to entertain me… I don’t like it when that happens…”
Dorian’s grin widened as his skin began to crack. The tunnel was filled with the screams of terror from the Goblins before it was effectively silence, leaving the mountain silent once more.
Damon groaned as he sat up and rubbed his head. It took him a few moments to realise where he was. The Everfree Forest. He looked down to see the girls beside him curled up and asleep, blinking with confusion he looked up to the sky to see it was a tint of red and the sun was low in the sky. Figuring it was near evening, he yawned and cracked his back waking the girls.
“UNCLE BONES!”
Pinchy tackled him in a tight hug. Damon smiled and cuddled her close as she giggled and looked up at him with a huge grin.
“YOU WERE SO COOL!”
Damon looked over to see the other fillies now standing up with a huge grin on their faces, Scootaloo was bouncing in place.
“You three alright?” He asked.
“We are thanks to you,” Sweetie smiled, “if it hadn’t been for you…”
Damon pulled all of them into a hug and chuckled.
“I think it’s safe to say that you should lay off crusading for a week or so… especially in the forest, that was reckless going in their. But seeing as it’s your first time—”
“Actually... we go in there all the time,” Applebloom sheepishly said.
“... What?” Damon blinked.
“Well, how else are we going to get awesome cutie marks?” Scootaloo asked.
Damon went to reply, but Pinchy placed a hoof on his arm and shook her head. He sighed and made a mental note to ask Berry why these fillies were insane.
“Anyway, we better get you four home now.”
He stood up as the cutie mark crusaders stretched and began to walk ahead of him as Pinchy clambered on top of his shoulders.
“Oh one other thing,” he said gaining their attention, “I think it’s best we don’t tell the others what happened. I’ll talk to Princess Celestia about it tomorrow.”
“Ah agree, don’t think Applejack would be to happy…”
“Not to mention what Rarity would say…”
“Rainbow Dash would think it was so not awesome if she knew I nearly died…”
“I won’t tell mummy, I had a great day out! It was like a real Daring Do adventure!” Pinchy giggled.
“You’re right!” Scootaloo cried, “I bet Rainbow’s never had an adventure like that!”
“Or our sisters!” Applebloom and Sweetie Belle added.
Damon sighed but smiled as he escorted the happy fillies back out of the forest and into Ponyville.
Berry made her way through the town with the cupcakes for Damon and Pinchy in her saddlebag. She had originally planned to head home after picking them up but because of Pinkie’s, Rarity’s and Twilight’s behaviour, she wanted to see if she could find Applejack again and ask her opinion.
When she got to the marketplace however, there was no sign of Applejack anywhere. Figuring that she must have returned back to the farm. Berry decided to try and find one of the other Elements. After first returning home to store the cupcakes safely as she was unsure as to how long she would be, she quickly made her way across the town and over the stone bridge that lead to the house of Fluttershy.
As she approached the home, she saw Fluttershy in the garden. A smile on her face. She was feeding her chickens and looked up to see Berry walking over and waved to her, Berry returned the gesture as she approached the yellow pegasus.
“Hello, Fluttershy.”
“O-oh hello, Berry, how are you?”
“I’m fine thank you, I just came round to ask you something. If that’s okay with you?”
“W-what about?” Fluttershy asked as she tossed some more seed out for the chickens.
“Well.. it’s about some of your friends actually,” Berry replied.
Fluttershy looked at her in curiosity.
“What about them?”
“Do they… well, have they ever acted… I don’t know, crazy?”
“Who’re you talking about?” Fluttershy asked, a clear nervous look on her face.
“Twilight, Rarity and Pinkie Pie,” Berry said.
“Oh… my,” Fluttershy whispered.
“What, what’s wrong?” Berry asked a little concerned.
“I need to talk to you, for Damon’s sake.”
Berry tilted her head in confusion as she followed the yellow pegasus into her home. She sat down on the sofa as Fluttershy made her way into the kitchen to make them both some tea, soon returning with a tray containing the cups and teapot. Fluttershy took her own seat and poured them both a drink before she spoke.
“Well… to start off with, do you remember how those three were like during the meeting?”
“Kinda… didn’t Twilight get upset that she didn’t get to ask Damon more questions?”
“That’s right, and Rarity was upset that Damon didn’t want her to make him some new robes with different colours?”
“Yeah.”
“Well… before the uhm… incident,” Fluttershy winced remembering that day, “I was having tea with him and he told me that his robes are very sentimental to him. Apparently, the simplicity of the robes design is something the mages hold high in his world, not needing any fancy clothing in order to live a good life. It’s a cultural thing I think.”
“That would explain it…” Berry nodded, “and what about the other two?
“Twilight is just excited,” Fluttershy giggled softly, “she’s just met someone from a different world and just wants to find out as much as she can.”
“I guess that makes sense…” Berry nodded again, though a little concerned with the look Twilight had when she saw her earlier, “and Pinkie?”
“Will Damon eat a cupcake made by her?” Fluttershy asked, suddenly becoming serious.
“Well I did buy him one for later… so yeah.”
Fluttershy let out a sigh of relief and smiled at her.
“As long as Damon enjoys the cupcake, there’s nothing to worry about.”
Berry smiled as she sipped her tea and continued to chat with Fluttershy for a while, happy that her questions about the others had been answered. For now.
Damon opened the door to Berry’s house with a happy Pinchy sitting on his shoulders. Berry,who had returned from Fluttershy's house a couple of hours ago, heard them come in and poked her head out from the kitchen and smiled at them.
“Hey you two, was wondering when you’d be back,”
“Mummy!” Pinchy squealed happily.
Damon chuckled as he gently placed her down and watched as she ran to Berry and hugged her tightly.
“Did you have fun today?” Berry asked.
“Mhm! It was awesome!” Pinchy giggled.
“That’s good, now go wash up, sweety. Dinner’s almost ready.”
“Okay mum!”
Berry and Damon smiled as Pinchy ran upstairs to wash up. He stretched and wandered into the kitchen and sat down as Berry returned to her cooking, humming lightly.
“Thank you,” Berry said.
“No problem, she’s a good kid,” Damon smiled back at her.
“After dinner, I need to talk to you about something.”
“What’s that?” Damon asked.
“It’s regarding some of the others, and something Fluttershy warned me about them.”
“That… sounds reassuring?”
They were soon re joined by Pinchy who clambered into her seat with a grin as Berry brought over the food to them. As Berry was serving out the courses, Damon sighed in relief thankful that nothing had gone… terribly wrong and Berry would be none the wiser.
“Mum?” Pinchy asked.
“Yes, sweety?”
“What does ’fuck’ mean?”
Damon felt as if everything in the world suddenly came to a stop as Berry’s head slowly turned to look at him.
Damon sighed as he rested his hand on his head as the three finished eating their dinner in silence as Pinchy looked between the two in worry. Berry had been surprisingly calm about the whole incident, but he figured she would rip into him after Pinchy was out of earshot. After the meal had been finished, Berry had given Pinchy her cupcake which had cheered her up a little bit but left Damon’s hidden. Not seeing his actions rewarding of a cupcake.
“Okay, sweeties. It’s time for bed,” Berry said
“Aww.. okay mum,” Pinchy pouted.
“Want me to tuck her in, Berry?” Damon asked with a weak smiled.
“No.”
He sighed again as Berry picked up Pinchy and carried her in one hoof. She looked over to Damon and gave a small wave and smiled at him.
“Night, Uncle Bones…”
“G’night, Pinches…”
He watched them go before letting his head slam into the table with a loud groan and twirled a bony finger in the air slowly.
“Go into the forest, you thought. Nothing could go wrong, you thought…” he groaned again, “wonder if it is possible for a man to die twice.”
Berry smiled as she tucked Pinchy into bed. Pinchy was wearing a pair of light pink foal pyjamas complete with little pink socks and had a plush rabbit firmly in her grasp, smiling up to her mother sleepily.
“Good night, Pinchy,” Berry said as she kissed her daughters head,
“Night mummy…” Pinchy murmured.
Berry turned and started heading out of the room. Just as she was about to turn of the light, she heard Pinchy stirr and looked back.
“Mummy?”
“Yes, sweetie?”
“Please don’t be mad at Uncle Bones… I was the one who wanted to go into the forest,” Pinchy yawned, “I really did had a great day… can I do it again?”
Berry tried to keep focused on being angry with Damon but watching her daughter made her heart melt a little and she sighed before smiling.
“Alright, sweetie… I won’t be too hard on him,”
“Make him wash the dishes with no magic!” Pinchy giggled before yawning again.
“Okay, I’ll make him do the dishes,” Berry chuckled, “Night night, I love you.”
“Love you too mummy…” Pinchy murmured before snuggling into the rabbit with a happy smile on her face.
Berry smiled as she turned the light off and closed the door quietly.
Damon heard the hoofsteps coming down the stairs and waited in silence. He stood up from the table as Berry entered and closed the door and slowly rubbed his arm.
“Look… I’m really sorry Berry, I just—”
“It’s fine,” Berry interrupted him, “I can’t be too mad at you… and Pinchy did seem to enjoy her day out with you,”
Damon blinked at her in confusion.
“Uhm… okay well, thanks I guess?” he replied.
“Oh, you're not getting off scott-free,” a mischievous smirk formed on her face.
“W-what are you going to do?”
“Lets just say… there are some ponies who want to speak with you…”
For the second time being in Equestria, Damon felt true fear.
Rarity was humming to herself as she floated the feather duster over various objects in her shop. She had received a call from Berry Punch that Damon was going to visit her and had decided to spruce up the place before he arrived, she hadn’t asked why Berry had insisted on the visit nor did she really care.
Berry had planned so that once Damon was done with whatever Rarity wanted him for, he would then have to go visit Twilight before finishing up by meeting Pinkie. A suitable punishment in her eyes and one he reluctantly had to agree with.
What Berry didn’t know, however, was that upon receiving their calls regarding Damon’s visits, the girls had decided to wait at Rarity’s for his arrival and get it over and done with once and for all. Pinkie had found out that Applejack also wanted to see Damon and had invited her over as well.
Applejack had already arrived at the boutique before the others and was in the kitchen laying out the table with dozens of various apple treats. She was planning to deliver some the previous night to Berry’s house but a family emergency had come up which was the disappearance of Applebloom, only to find her being escorted home by Damon. Had it not been for Pinchy and the remaining two crusaders with him, Applejack would have given him the food right there.
There was a knock on the door and Rarity went to answer it. She smiled as she was greeted with a very tired looking Twilight, he eye twitching and mane a complete mess.
“Darling what happened to your beautiful mane?” Rarity gasped.
“Oh just some late night studying that’s all,” she giggled, walking past Rarity.
“Well at least let me fix it up for you, he’s going to be here—”
She was interrupted by a knock on the door.
“Ah that must be Pinkie,” Rarity smiled as she walked to the door and opened it, “Pinkie dear, you’re almost late for—”
She stopped mid sentence as she stared up at the irritated face of Damon. He crossed his arms and with a heavy sigh put on a forced smile.
“Morning, Rarity…” he said sadly.
“Hello, Damon…” she replied, a demented grin slowly forming on her face, “do come in.”
Damon slowly made his way in, all the while keeping his eye on Rarity. As she slowly closed the door and locked it, Damon heard a sound behind him and spun on the spot to see the other two waiting for him. Each grinning maniacally.
“Uhm… I think I’ll be going now,”
“Nonsense, you just got here. Please have a seat,” Twilight giggled, her eye twitching more.
As he was ushered to the chair Damon forgot all about his magic. And in that moment for the third time since arriving in Equestria, he felt true fear.
Berry trotted into the kitchen and hit the switch to the kettle. She smiled to herself as she got out a couple of plates for herself and Pinchy and set them up before going to get some bread and other food to make her and her daughter some lunch. As she was making the sandwiches Pinchy walked in with a confused look on her face.
“Mum, where’s Uncle Bones?” she asked.
“He’s just visiting the elements, sweetie,” Berry replied.
“Aww… I wanted to play with him today,” Pinchy pouted.
“None of that young filly,” Berry giggled, “or you don’t get a tasty sandwich!”
Pinchy grinned and clambered into a chair at the table and waited as Berry finished making their food and came over with the plates, before returning to fix up a cup of tea for herself.
“When will Uncle Bones be back mum?” Pinchy asked before taking a bite of food.
“Later, sweetie, later,” Berry smiled as she sipped her tea, a small smile on her face.
“What is the power of your magic?”
“How about this one, darling? It really brings out your… bones.”
“An this one has our secret sauce inside it, what ya think of that?”
“Do the mages have an Master or a figure head they all follow? Who are your gods?”
“Oh but this one would match those lovely flames in your eyes!”
“An Big Mac got some fresh apples to make this pie hoof likcing good!”
“PLEASE STOP!” Damon swallowed before wailing.
Damon struggled against the bonds holding him in place in a chair. When he had sat down he had felt a strange feeling come over him and realised Twilight had cast a curse on him, though she denied it was a curse and was a simple magic represent spell. He had tried to overpower it but his fear had gotten the better of him and he was unable to focus properly.
For the past twenty minutes, he had been listening to Twilight question him non-stop about every little thing she could think of to do with Cyrium, from what the seasons where to what the food was like. Rarity had been continuously dropping hoods onto his head that were attached to over the top designed cloaks trying to find ‘the one’ as Applejack kept shoveling apple related food into his mouth and forcing him to eat them. Determined to find something he would enjoy.
The three mares ignored his pleas however, and continued their relentless and merciless assault on him. Damon prayed to any deity that could hear him to save his sorry soul from the eternal nightmare.
“Muuuuum!” Pinchy called out, “I’m boooooored.”
“Why not go outside for a bit?” Berry suggested.
“I want to play hide and seek with you and Uncle Bones though…”
“Alright, let’s go and see if we can drag him away from his time with the Elements.”
“Yay!”
‘He’s been there a good hour, that’s long enough I think.’
Pinchy raced out the door, followed by her mother who carefully closed it as they made their way over to the Carousel Boutique. As they walked they spotted Spike running towards them in the distant, clearly out of breath.
“Berry… Punch!” he gasped.
“What’s wrong Spike?” she asked.
“Twilight… Rarity’s… Damon… interrogation!”
“Wait, what?” Berry blinked.
Spike gasped for air as he held a note up for Berry. Scribbled on the note, from what she could actually make out, was the ramblings of Twilight telling spike that she was going to interrogate, the word being scribbled out and replaced with talk, to Damon at the boutique. Spike, who was asleep at the time, had only just found it and was concerned for Damon’s well being.
“I’m sure everything is fine, we’re heading over there now,” Berry tried to reassure him.
“We’re gunna play hide and seek!” Pinchy added with a delighted grin.
“Okay… well I guess I’ll come with you, make sure Twi’s doing alright.”
The three then carried on towards the boutique as Berry slowly grew more and more anxious about the whole situation. Just as they were getting close, Rainbow Dash landed beside them in a cloud of dirt with a concerned look on her face.
“Hey, you guys seen Applejack at all? We were meant to be hoof wrestling but she didn’t turn up and her family said she’s in town. They said she was going to give Damon something.”
Berry gulped as she bit her lip, her concern growing more and more as Rainbow joined their group. Spike quickly brought Rainbow up to speed who was now more curious than ever about what was going on with Damon, they all turned the corner and saw Fluttershy just ahead of them
“Hey, Flutters,” Rainbow called out.
“O-oh hello everypony, how are you?” she replied.
“We’re just on our way to the Boutique,” Spike said.
“Can I come with you? I was meant to be meeting Rarity at the spa but she didn’t show up, and some ponies have been saying she’s not left the boutique since yesterday.”
Berry’s eyes went wide as she remembered what Rarity had asked her to do for her regarding Damon and was now regretting her decision to send Damon to the girls as punishment.
“We need to get to the Boutique, now!” Berry said quickly.
“I agree, something ain’t right here,” Spike added.
As quickly as they could, they all made their way to the Boutique and could hear the sounds of raised voices inside. Three of the sounded impatient and demanding whilst the fourth sounded like they were terrified.
Damon’s voice.
Rainbow wasted no time and bucked open the door, and as the group rushed in they gasped at what they saw inside. Damon was tied to a chair with crumbs all around his body and robes, Twilight was sitting beside him with several scrolls all writing at one with a demented stare fixed onto his face. Rarity was standing in front of him with a large number of multi coloured robes floating behind her with some of them behind Damon, a couple on his head and Applejack was opposite Twilight holding a slice of apple pie.
The room went silent as both groups stared at each other. The tension so high, a knife could cut it.
“What… the hay… is going on?” Rainbow asked.
“N-nothing!” Twilight replied, “we were just talking to Damon that’s all!”
“Help… me,” Damon whispered.
“Why hasn’t he just used his magic to get free?” Spike asked.
“I think he’s too terrified to do anything…” Berry muttered.
“That… makes no sense!” Spike groaned.
“Would you be so kind as to come back later? I’m awfully sorry but we must be getting back to our conversation.”
“But… I want to play with Uncle Bones,” Pinchy said.
“Yes, playing is good, let the bone guy go play—”
Applejack shoved the pie into his mouth and effectively shut him up.
“Hey don’t be mean!” Pinchy glared at her.
“Please girls, this is really important to me, I mean Equestria!” Twilight said walking over to them.
Soon the room broke into an argument between Berry, Rainbow and Spike against Twilight, Rarity and Applejack. Pinchy stood close to Fluttershy who held her close as she watched the argument with worry. During this time, Damon started to breath slowly and calm himself down now that he saw he had a chance to get away.
He couldn’t focus hard enough to cast a teleportation spell but muttered under his breath and in a quick flash, the robes holding him down were burnt to ashes. Damon then quietly got up and tried to sneak his way out the back, reaching the door to find it was locked. He took a step back to consider the possibility of just destroying the door, but saw some stairs and decided to head up them, planning to climb out of a second story window as opening the window in the room he was in would have alerted the arguing group.
Damon creeped his way up the stairs and was about to take the final step when he heard a sudden silence downstairs, followed by Rarity’s voice.
“Where did Damon go?”
In a panic, he brought his foot down too quickly and the stair beneath it creaked loudly.
“He’s upstairs! Get him!” Applejack shouted.
“Leave him alone!” Rainbow shouted back.
Damon heard the sounds of rushing hoofsteps and a blind panic took over his body as he ran as fast as he could towards one of the windows. With a forceful leap, he jumped through the glass and flailed as he soared to the ground with a loud thud. With a pained groan he began to crawl his way forward and saw a pink leg in front of him. With a grunt he grabbed it and pulled himself up, believing it was Berry who must run outside to see if he was okay after the smash.
“Help!” he cried.
“Hello Damon…” a cold voice replied.
His pupils shrunk as he looked up into the cold eyes of Pinkie Pie. Her mane was completely flat and she had a demented grin on her face that send shivers down his spine, her own pupils were shrunk to the point that Damon could have sworn they were shaking.
“So… how did you like my cupcake?”
“I-I haven’t,” he swallowed, “had one yet…”
“No matter… we can remedy that…” she giggled manically.
For the fourth time since arriving in Equestria, Damon Lipton felt true fear.
It had been a slow month for Ponyville. The ponies had now gotten used to the sight of Damon wondering around the town with Berry Punch or her daughter or both. Everypony had heard of what three of the Elements had nearly done to him and all had made mental notes never to get on their bad side. Especially Pinkie Pie.
To the day, Damon had never spoken of what horrors he endured from her. Only mentioning it had something to do with ‘sugar overload’.
Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie had all felt bad about what they had done to Damon after realising they were being way out of order and had tried to make amends for it. Rarity had insisted she would make Damon a bunch of new robes, one colour, one material, all to go with his current attire which he accepted. Pinkie had promised to throw him the greatest party ever, scrapping the plans for the original party and had spent the past month planning a new one. Damon had made it very clear to her that he wouldn’t miss it for the world and was somewhat dreading the whole thing, not sure as to what the crazy pink mare considered a party.
Applejack had continuously apologised for her behaviour, going on and on about how it wasn’t very neighbourly of her. She’d managed to convince Damon to come round one day to spend it with the Apples, to truly make it up to him. At first he’d been a little sceptical about it but after persuading from Berry and Pinchy. He had decided to accept and they arranged the date.
That date was today.
Damon grumbled as Celestia’s sun shone through the curtains and slowly raised himself out of the bed with a low groan. Rubbing his sockets he stretched popped his spine before grumbling again and standing up. He quickly got dressed and headed downstairs, ready to have some breakfast.
He was too tired to fully take in his surroundings and didn’t hear the sound of little hooves coming from behind him. Before he could react he lost his balance and fell onto his front with a yelp a sa small pink blur tackled him by surprise.
“Morning, Uncle Bones!” Pinchy giggled.
“Hey, Pinches…” he groaned, “mind getting off me?”
Pinchy giggled and got off Damon who groaned as Berry poked her head out from the kitchen to see what all the fuss was about.
“You know, Damon,” she smirked, “you really should be careful where you tread.”
“B-but I,” Damon stuttered, “it was—”
“Yeah, Uncle Bones,” Pinchy giggled, “you need to be more careful!”
Damon sighed in defeat as the filly ran to her mother for a hug and slowly trudged his way into the kitchen, taking a seat and grumbling to himself. They all ate breakfast in relative silence as Damon contemplated coming up with an excuse for not going to see Applejack at the farm, he also hoped she had forgotten about it and he could’ve used that to his advantage.
“So, Damon,” Berry started, “looking forward to your day at the farm?”
Damn... he thought, “of course I’m not, I still have nightmares about what she and the others did to me.”
“Oh it couldn’t have been all bad, there were far worse things they could’ve done,” Berry replied.
“That’s what Pinkie did…” he grumbled.
“What was that?”
“Nothing, look, do I really have to go, Berry?” Damon whined.
“Yes, you do,” Berry replied, bopping him with a mixing spoon.
“Evil,” he muttered.
“I can go with you, Uncle Bones if you want?,” Pinchy offered.
“Yeah, I could do with someone on my side. Can she Berry?” Damon asked.
Berry raised her eyebrow and smiled seeing Pinchy giving her the biggest puppy dog eyes ever as her lip quivered. Her smile faltered and she rolled her eyes when she saw Damon trying to do the same thing, letting out a defeated sigh.
“Alright, alright. Just no galavanting into the forest okay?” she warned.
“Yes ma’am,” Damon saluted.
“Thank you, mummy!”
“Your welcome, sweetie,” Berry chuckled giving Pinchy a kiss on the head.
“Shall we set off, Captain Pinches?” Damon asked.
“Of course!” Pinchy declared, clambering onto his shoulders, “onwards!”
Berry smiled as she watched the two depart the house, Damon making boat noises again as Pinchy ‘steered’ him using his skull.
The ponies in town watched with smiles and chuckles as Damon ‘sailed’ through the town with Pinchy. He had conjured up a hat for her on her request in the shape of a trihorn, as well as an eyepatch. Pinchy was holding onto his skull with one hoof whilst the other was pointing him in the direction she wanted him to go.
They soon saw Applebloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo ahead of them also seemingly heading towards the direction of the farm and a mischievous grin formed on Pinchy’s face.
“All hooves to battle stations,” Pinchy whispered to him, “ready the water cannons!”
“Aye, aye Cap’n,” Damon smirked, understanding exactly what she was on about.
As they came closer to the three fillies, Scootaloo was the first to get the strange feeling of being followed and turned around. She was about to say hello to Damon when Pinchu suddenly cried out.
“FIRE!”
Before the crusaders could react, Damon shot a blast of water from his hand that soaked the fillies who screamed. Pinchy and Damon laughed as the three wet fillies glared at him before they all grinned mischieviously at the pair.
“Get him!” Scootaloo cried.
Damon suddenly was jumped by the three who managed to get him to the ground as Pinchy - who decided to turn against Damon - began to tickle the lich.
“N-no! S-stop I’m ticklish!” Damon said in between laughing.
This only served to increase the tickle attack of the four fllies as Damon wriggled on the ground in laughter, begging for mercy to befall him.
“Keep going!” Pinchy giggled.
“Cutie mark crusader, tickle champions!” The other three cried in unison.
“Alright, that’s enough.”
The looked up to see Applejack with a grin as she looked down at the group, holding back her own chuckles.
“Aww but sis,” Applebloom started, “we was winnin’!”
“Ah know, ah know. But Damon looked like he was ‘bout to bust a gut… least I think he has a gut.”
“Actually, I don’t really… nor am I ticklish which begs the question why I was laughing…” Damon muttered as Applejack helped him up.
“Thanks,” Damon said.
“Don’t mention it, and don’t worry. Ah won’t tell anypony you were defeated by four fillies,” Applejack snickered.
“Hey, they ganged up on me! I was just… waiting for the right moment to launch a counter offensive,” he protested.
“Uhuh… sure,” Applejack laughed.
Damon grumbled as he picked Pinchy up as well as Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle who begged him to do so. With Applebloom on her sisters back and Damon carrying Pinchy with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo on his shoulders, the group headed off towards the farmhouse.
As they came to the farm, they were greeted by Big Mac who shook Damon’s hand firmly.
“Nice ta meetcha finally, Mister Damon, names Big Macintosh. But ponies round here call me Big Mac.”
“Likewise, and please, just Damon is fine. Mister makes me feel very old.”
The two shared a chuckle as they came to the front door of the house, standing on the porch. Big Mac raised a leg in front of Damon and stopped him.
“Okay… you’d better wait here, Damon,” Big Mac started, “Ah better let Granny brace herself.”
“Understandable,” he replied as Big Mac walked into the home.
“Ah hope this doesn’t end badly…” Applejack muttered.
“What’s the worst that could happen? The way your town paints your grandmother makes her seem like a saint, I’m sure everything will—”
Damon was interrupted as a blur of green rammed into his gut and sent him flying backwards off the porch and into the dirt. He coughed and groaned, looking up to see the angry eyes of an old mare looking down at him.
“So, yer jus’ can’t wait fer me to kick the bucket? Figured you’d come by and try to take me now eh? Well, ah may be old, but ah got a lotta fight in me still!” She said.
“Lady,” Damon started getting up, “I don’t know what—”
He was interrupted again as the mare reared her back legs and bucked him twice, once in the stomach making him double over and then again in the head. Sending him backwards with a flip. Damon shakily got to his feet, dazed and confused beyond belief before the mare grabbed his hand and flipped him over and slammed him into the ground. He cried in pain as he stood up slowly and tried to focus his magic.
“So, you think yer fancy magic will save you now?” she growled before punching him again, “how’d ya like that?”
“LADY, WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?” Damon shouted as he held his stomach. “GET A GRIP ON YOURSELF!”
Damon then before felt something tackle him to the floor and start punching him in the face. He quickly raised his hands and a small shield formed around it, deflecting the blows.
Applejack - who up until this point had watched along with the others in shock- quickly ran over to the crazed mare along with her brother and pulled her off Damon.
“Granny calm down! What’s wrong with ya?” Applejack asked.
“The reaper’s come to take me away!” Granny cried.
“I have not!” Damon protested, “and I’m not a reaper I’m a lich, there’s a difference!”
“Ah likely story!” Granny glared at him, “Why I oughta—”
“Granny, he’s telling the truth. This is our friend Damon Lipton, ya know, the guy Applejack tried to beat up?” Applebloom said as she and her friends rushed over.
Granny looked over to Applejack who blushed with embarrassment and raised her eyebrow.
“This true, Applejack?” she asked.
“Uh… yeah… kinda,” she muttered.
Granny stared at her with a blank expression.
“Well… he insulted mah apples!”
“Don’t start that again…” Damon grumbled.
“Enough of yer bickerin’’!” Granny snapped before turning to Damon, “Ah do apologise, Mister Damon. Ah thought you was the grim reaper!”
Damon chuckled as Granny starting guffawing loudly. The laughter was contagious as soon everyone had joined in.
“Alright everypony, lets git on inside!” Granny chuckled.
As they walked into the house, Applejack nudged Damon in the side and looked up at him.
“So uh… no hard feelings right?” she sheepishly asked him.
“Nah, what’s done is done,” Damon replied as he picked Pinchy up.”
Applejack nodded with a smile as they all made their way into the home.
Luna looked absolutely bored as she listened to the white stallion in front of her drone on. She sighed softly as she gently tapped her hoof on the throne, already not looking forward to the night court, given she hadn’t actually started it yet. The stallion - who was known as Money Bags- had demanded to see one of the princesses immediately and Luna was the only one around at the time, she had agreed to listen to him as she was happy that a pony wanted an audience with her. But now she was regretting it. Money Bags had been waffling on for an hour and seemed to not be close to stopping.
“And that is why, dear princess, I insist on there being a tax increase for the owners of small businesses and a decrease on larger shop owners such as myself,” he concluded
“Yes, very good, Money Bags. It’ll be looked at soon enough,” Luna sighed.
Money Bags bowed as he left the room leaving Luna on her own. She groaned and rubbed her temples as her head throbbed slightly, grumbling under her breath about the greedy little so and so. She lifted her head up as the door opened and she glared at the intruder before recognising them.
“Oh, its just you nephew,” she sighed.
“What’s wrong, auntie?” Blueblood asked with a look of concern, “you look absolutely worn down.”
“It’s the nobles again, I still can’t get my head around everything that has changed since I was… away,” she replied with a sigh.
“Well… if you’d like, I haven’t got anything planned for this evening so I can take over the night court for you again if you like? Auntie Celestia says that it’s good practise for me,”
“If you would, Blueblood,” Luna smiled, “I’d much appreciate it. I’ll just go and raise the moon and I’ll be off.”
Blueblood smiled as Luna stepped down and made her way out of the room and towards the balcony that she and her sister used in order to perform the ritual of lowering and raising the sun and moon. As she opened the door to the balcony, Celestia was already there waiting for her.
“Lulu you look tired, would you like me to do the night court for you?” Celestia asked.
“It’s okay, Blueblood is taking over for me,” Luna replied with a smiled.
Celestia smiled to her as they both began to the ritual. First, Celestia slowly lowered the sun as Luna began to raise the moon over the kingdom. Once it had been completed, the two sisters embraced one another before Luna gave a yawn and they went about their separate ways. With Celestia returning to her bedroom as Luna walked to hers, thinking about the past month.
The past month had caused a large uproar in each the night and day courts as nobles and dignitaries demanded explanations as to who or what was sighted being chased by the Princess of the Night, Celestia and Luna had to explain that they had received an ambassador of sorts and through miscommunication was residing in Ponyville for recovery of - as they put it - ‘the stress of the job’.
Luna returned to her room and took a well deserved bath before slipping into her bed and snuggling against the soft pillows. Smiling in contentment as she closed her eyes.
There was a loud crackle light lightning followed by a flash of white before something landed in her bed, causing her to be thrown up slightly and flail her legs.
OH ANCESTORS NOT AGAIN! she thought.
She saw another bipedal creature slowly raise from the bed and dust itself down. Unlike Damon, however, this one was clearly alive. It took a few steps forwards and stumbled before steadying itself and looking around at its surroundings. Luna watched as it raised a white hand, seeing it glow briefly before a sigh escaped the beings lips.
“I can sense him… could I finally—”
It stopped mid sentence as it turned round and saw the blue alicorn staring at him in confusion. It blinked before dusting itself again and giving a polite bow.
“Greetings, I bear you no harm.”
“HI. I’M STAYING CALM THIS TIME!” Luna replied.
It looked at her a little confused before shrugging it off and looking around.
“I’m looking for someone, perhaps you could assist me?” it asked.
“Who a-are you?” Luna asked it.
“Hmm? Oh, my apologies! I never introduced myself.”
It bowed lowly one last time before smiling at the alicorn.
“My name is Elder Kalanar, I’m looking for my student. Damon Lipton.”
Damon snored softly as he rolled over in his bed. It had been a long and tiring day, but completely worth it. After the slight misunderstanding at the apple residence involving Granny Smith, the day had gone surprisingly well for him. He and Pinchy had partaken in lunch with the Apples and Damon had to admit that the food was simply devine, much better than he was anticipating.
He lost count on how much apple related food he ate, but frankly he didn’t care because they just tasted so good. Granny Smith found it hysterical that he was able to eat anything at all and kept piling more and more food onto his plate, much to his delight. After they had eaten lunch, they all went outside to game of hoofball. Something Damon struggled to get the hang of at first.
During which, the remaining Elements of Harmony as well as the rest of the CMC and Berry Punch turned un unexpectedly and joined in the game, Rarity had brought along a robe she had been designing in the exact same colour and style as Damon’s. Damon happily accepted it as his current attire tough clean, was still ripped and torn from the past months activites and he thanked Rarity for the creation as it took her longer than she thought. Pinkie Pie had also brought along a slip of paper for Damon which red.
To Damon,
I’m happy to invite you to the official ‘Welcome to Ponyville Damon Party’ and the ‘Sorry we thought you were evil, that was mean of us, especially what I did to you in the basement party’ tomorrow at 12-?
Please R.S.V.P!
Love, Pinkie.
Damon had chuckled and replied with a yes right there and then, not really wanting to see what would happen if he delayed replying to her any more than it was necessary. After much galavanting and having fun, the day slowly gave way to the evening and everyone returned to their homes. Berry had cooked dinner for her, Pinchy and Damon before putting Pinchy to bed and spending a few hours talking with him. They both then had gone to bed and Damon had quickly fallen asleep.
Damon shot up in his bed suddenly and screamed loudly as he felt something wash over him, a strange and familiar energy. Berry ran in followed by Pinchy, both with a look of concern on their faces.
“Damon, what’s wrong?” Berry asked.
“S-sorry… it’s just… I don’t know” Damon muttered.
“Did you have a bad dream, Uncle Bones?” Pinchy asked, climbing into the bed to give him a hug.
“Sort of…” Damon replied.
“What do you mean sort of?” Berry asked, sitting herself in the bed.
“Well, I was having this nice dream that I was back in Cyrium flying across the skies on a dragon when I suddenly felt this strange feeling wash over me, filling me with dread but the strange thing was it felt really familiar. Like something I once knew…”
“Feeling?” Pinchy asked, tilting her head at him.
Damon sighed and rubbed his head before giving Pinchy a playful ruffle of her mane.
“It’s nothing, just a bad dream.”
“Alright then…” Berry sighed, “goodnight Damon.”
“Nighty night, Uncle Bones!” Pinchy giggled and nuzzled him.
Damon smiled as Berry and Pinchy left the room before turning to the window and string out into the darkness.
“I sense something… a presence I have not felt…” Damon muttered, “no… I’m imagining it… I’d better get some rest, guna try practising that fireball spell tomorrow”
He yawned before settling back into his bed, ignoring and suppressing the rising feeling that something was terribly wrong.
As the morning sun rose in the sky and started to illuminate Damon’s room and shine upon him, he groaned and yawned lazily sitting up in his bed only to be greeted face to face with a grinning Pinchy who was sitting on the end of his bed.
“Huh? Pinches?” he mumbled.
“This came for you!” She replied.
Damon noticed she was holding a scroll in her hooves and took it before opening it.
Dear, Damon
Princess Luna and myself shall be visiting Ponyville today along with a guest who you are a supposed associate of. We would like to meet you at the library for morning tea at around ten o’clock, please do not be late and if you so wish you may bring Miss Berry Punch and her daughter.
The Elements of Harmony will also receive an invitation so please do not be alarmed, we look forward to seeing you.
Yours,
Princess Celestia & Princess Luna
Damon scratched his head in confusion as he studied the scroll for a second time.
“Huh… I wonder who that is? It can’t be Dorian… unless…”
He slowly lowered the scroll and looked out of the window, a cold chill running down his spine as he let out a whimper.
“Oh Varlos no…”
Berry briskly walked across the town with Pinchy sitting comfortable on her back facing behind her, in her mouth was the cloak of Damon. Damon had suddenly freaked out that morning claiming that he was as good as dead if he went to the meeting, Berry had dismissed it and forcibly dragged him out of the house by his cloak. Damon had protested, squirmed, screamed, and cried as he tried to grip the floor. His fear consuming his rational thinking of being able to use spells.
“Damon, you are going and that’s final!” Berry shouted through the cloth.
“Please don’t make me!” he wailed, “you don’t know what he’ll do to me!”
“Oh nonsense,” Berry sighed, “I’m sure he just wants to see you again. After all, you have been missing in your world for a month…”
“He won’t care! He will kill me, resurrect me, then kill me again!” Damon whimpered as he tried to break free of her grip, “I want to live!”
“You’re already dead,” Berry groaned.
“He can’t be that bad can he, Uncle Bones?” Pinchy asked.
Damon only replied with whimpers as he tried - and failed- to get free from the earth ponies grip. Pinchy giggled, finding the whole ordeal to be completely hilarious.
As they continued to make their way through the town, onlookers could only stop what they were doing and watch with a strange fascination they watched the lich get dragged screaming towards the library.
“DON’T JUST STAND THERE! HELP ME!” he wailed at them.
They simply blinked at him as the strange group came closer to the library. Just as they were coming to it, the cutie mark crusaders rounded a corner and saw them, curious as to what was going on ,they rushed over to see what was what.
“Hey, Berry… What’s going on?” Scootaloo asked.
“Nothing girls, he just has a meeting that’s all,” she replied.
“SAVE ME!” Damon wailed.
“Right… well we’re gunna go try and get a cutie mark in hockey playing,” Sweetie Belle said.
“If we had a puck that is,” Applebloom added, “we couldn’t find one.
Damon scrambled for his cloak and pulled off the broach he used to show his status as a mage and held it to them with a grin.
“Look, if you girls help me you can use this. Deal?”
He foolishly tossed it to them and Scootaloo picked it up inspecting it.
“Sure, but I don’t think Berry would be to pleased…”
Damon’s smile instantly vanished as he stared at the grinning fillies. Berry started walking again and dragged him behind her, shaking his fist at the evil grins of the three fillies.
“TRAITORS! AFTER EVERYTHING WE’VE BEEN THROUGH!”
“Bye Damon!” they said in unison with a giggle.
The three of them eventually came to the library just as the door to the building opened up and Spike came outside carrying a black rubbish bag and saw them coming and waved.
“Hey guys—” he stopped seeing Damon being dragged behind Berry,” do… I even want to know?”
“SPIKE! SAVE ME!” Damon cried.
“He’s just being a wuss,” Berry sighed as she dragged him inside.
Spike blinked as Pinchy giggled and saved to him as she went past him. He sighed and shook his head, getting rid of the rubbish bag before re entering the library. Inside, Berry saw that the Elements of Harmony had already arrived and were sitting around in the living room.
“Good morning, Berry. How are—” Rarity stopped in mid sentence and blinked, “why… are you dragging Damon?”
“Because she’s a soulless witch who likes seeming me suffer!” Damon answered.
“He refused to leave the house so I had to force him to,” Berry said with a roll of her eyes, finally releasing him.
“That’s because you don’t know him like I do!” Damon snapped, “wait a minute, you don’t know him at all so you wouldn’t know him like I do,” Damon muttered.
“What are you on about?” Rainbow asked, “chill dude.”
“Yeah, what’s so bad about—” Applejack paused before looking to Damon, “who is the guy we’re meein’ exactly?”
Before he could answer, they all heard the sounds of chariots landing and Damon felt his whole body go cold. There was a knock on the door and Spike answered it, revealing a stallion guard.
“Presenting, their highnesses Princess Celestia and Luna. And their honorary guest.”
The Princesses were the first to walk into the room, the Elements, Berry, Spike and Pinchy bowing to them respectively. The two monarchs stood aside to let their guest in and everyone's eyes widened seeing the bipedal creature walk in, wearing the same styled robes as Damon right down to the strange broach. But instead of being nothing but bone, this one had fair white skin, long silver hair and black eyes with a small white dot where the pupil would be, the creature also had two pointed ears on the side of its head.
“Master Kalanar…” Damon whispered.
“Ah! Damon my boy!” Kalanar smiled as he briskly strode over, “It’s good to see you, my student!”
“S-student?” the others gasped.
Kalanar wrapped Damon into a tight hug as he laughed heartily, Damon hugged him back whilst nervously laughing.
“I-it’s good to see you t-to, Master. What're you doing here?”
“Good question. After your little… accident, the other Elders were furious with you. They wanted to bring you back so you could be placed under trial for your actions.”
“T-trial?” Damon spluttered.
“Well, you did perform an illegal spell to apprentices and you did get the book from the Elder chamber—”
“I didn’t steal it, I swear it was—” Damon started.
Kalanar interrupted him by raising his hand up and smiled.
“Calm yourself, Damon. Iknow. You’re to stupid to pull of a theft like that anyway,” he chuckled, giving a pat to Damon’s shoulder
Damon heard the others snicker and he glared at them as Kalanar continued.
“The two Princesses have informed me on what happened, but I want to hear it from you.”
“Okay… well, it all started when I found the book inside the library after you told me I needed to do a report on ward spells and something about it just made me want to cast it. I realised it was actually a trick by Dorian the Deranged who essentially gave me the book in order to use me as a means to an end, he threw me out of the void to resize this Discord fellow but not before turning me into a lich. After a miscommunication, I told Princess Celestia I had no intention of doing what Dorian wanted. But I have no idea how to get back and if I’m honest, Master… I kinda like it here...” Damon told him without any interruptions.
Damon braced himself for the verbal berating he was expecting from Kalanar. The whole room had gone dead quiet as they looked to the two humanoids, waiting in suspense for one of them to make a move.
“I see…” Kalanar replied, stroking his chin.
Damon clenched his fists, ready for the onslaught but instead was embraced once more by Kalanar who laughed as he squeezed Damon tightly, a happy smile on his face.
“Oh thank Varlos, I was afraid you might have gone dark and joined the ranks of the necromancers,” Kalanar chuckled.
“Y-yeah… i don’t know how to do necromancy anyway…”
“That’s good, have you found out what your phylactery is yet?” Kalanar asked.
“... Yes?” Damon replied.
“You haven’t, have you?” he sighed.
“No…. no I have not.”
“Well, not a problem. Usually they are things a lich keeps close to their bodies, so I would assume Dorian infused your soul into—” he stopped and looked at Damon’s body, “where’s your broach?”
“Hm? Oh the cutie mark crusader have it,” he saw the confused look of Kalanar and corrected himself, “some children have it and… you think that was the phylactery… don’t you?”
“You… are… and idiot,” Kalanar groaned.
“My bad…” Damon chuckled.
“This is all well and good,” Rarity suddenly interrupted, “but what is happening in this meeting exactly?”
“Oh, there’s no meeting per-say,” Kalanar said.
“What do you mean?” Luna asked, “you requested we have a meeting with your student.”
“That I did, but it was only so I could catch the git,” Kalanar replied, his voice sounding colder.
“W-what?” Celestia spluttered.
“WHAT WERE YOU THINKING, DAMON?” Kalaar shouted, “YOU COULD’VE BEEN KILLED!”
Before Damon could answer, Kalanar punched his fist out and a blast of air shot out, striking Damon square in the face and launching him into the wall. Kalanar fired a second blast that succeeded in blowing out the wall and sending Damon out into the streets with a scream.
Kalanar grunted as everyone simply stared at him in complete an utter shock, he started to walk towards the hole where a bunch of ponies were already gathering, confused as to what was going on.
“K-Kalanar!” Celestia spluttered again, “what are you doing?”
“Discipline,” he simply replied as he walked out of the hole in the wall, leaving the shocked ponies behind.
Bon-Bon smiled as she headed down the street towards her confectionary shop in order to start her day. Along the way, she saw her friend Lyra step out of her home and smiled.
“Hey, Lyra.”
“Oh hey, Bon-Bon. How are you?” Lyra replied.
“I’m okay, just heading to work,” Bon-Bon replied.
“Want me to walk you?” Lyra offered.
Bon-Bon blushed slightly and nodded, “I’d like that, yeah.”
The two mares walked side by side down the streets, Celestia’s sun warming their coats as they past the other ponies in the street. They stopped in their tracks when they heard the sounds of Damon—local lich and friend of Berry Punch—screaming as he was dragged through the streets by his cloak, which was in the mouth of said Berry Punch.
“Damon, you are going and that’s final!” Berry shouted through the cloth.
“Please don’t make me!” he wailed, “you don’t know what he’ll do to me!”
“Oh nonsense,” Berry sighed, “I’m sure he just wants to see you again. After all, you have been missing in your world for a month…”
“He won’t care! He will kill me, resurrect me, then kill me again!” Damon whimpered as he tried to break free of her grip, “I want to live!”
“You’re already dead,” Berry groaned.
“He can’t be that bad can he, Uncle Bones?” Pinchy asked.
They heard Damon whimper before he spotted them and other ponies starring and wailed, “DON’T JUST STAND THERE! HELP ME!”
The onlookers simply watched the bizarre scenario, wondering what the heck was actually going on. As Berry dragged Damon around a corner, Bon-bon looked to Lyra.
“Do we… even want to know?”
“No… no we don’t, liches are weird,” Lyra replied.
“Very true,” Bon-Bon giggled.
The two arrived at Bon-Bon’s shop soon after the strange scene with Berry Punch and Damon, walking inside as Bon-Bon turned the sign to show the shop was ‘open.’
“I’m gunna head out now, Bon-Bon. Need to go get my Lyre fixed,” Lyra said.
“Oh, okay. Do you uh… want to do anything later?” Bon-Bon asked.
“Sure, wanna go to—”
An explosion interrupted her that caused both ponies to jump out of their skins, “What in the hay was that?”
“I don’t know…” Bon-Bon muttered.
They both exited the shop and joined a crowd of ponies who were trying and see where the source of the sudden explosion had come from, a figure that they instantly recognised as Damon suddenly darted round a corner past the group of ponies.
“Hey, watch it!” a stallion yelled.
“Sorry!” Damon yelled back.
“W-watch where you’re running, Damon!”
“Sorry, Bon-Bon!”
Damon panted as he darted round into an alley, leaving both Lyra and Bon-Bon looking on in confusion.
“Wonder what that was all about…” Bon-Bon muttered to herself.
“Beats me, anyway, I’m gunna head off. I’ll see you this evening, okay?” Lyra said.
“O-okay, see you later!” Bon-Bon smiled.
Lyra started to walk back down the pathway and her eyes went wide as she looked to her left. Down the road where the library was, a tall figure —that looked like Damon minus the bones— was slowly walking towards her. Behind it she could see a large hole in the wall of the library and the princesses, Berry Punch and her daughter, Spike and the Elements of Harmony running out of it.
“Excuse me, miss,” the figure asked politely, “did you see Damon come this way?”
“U-uh… y-yeah?” she replied, blinking in slight confusion.
“Marvelous, thank you.”
The figure quickly strode past her before vanishing in a flash of white, leaving the mare watching in disbelief as the others ran past her.
“Maybe I should’ve listened to him earlier,” Berry said.
“It’s okay, Berry,” Twilight replied reassuringly, “none of us were expecting that…”
“What manner of discipline is this?!” Luna growled, “this is mindless brutality!”
“Let’s just focus on finding Damon before Kalanar does,” Celestia said, charging up her horn with magic..
Damon panted as he ran out of the alleyway and looked left and right, “Need to get out of town, need to ready.”
He darted towards the Everfree forest but was suddenly and violently blasted forwards as something exploded behind him. He tumbled along the ground and went careening into a tree, smashing directly through it and into a tumbling heap on the forest ground.
“Motherfucker… I should know better than to stop when he does that…” he groaned as he got up.
“Are you going to make this easy or not, Damon?” Kalanar cried from above him.
Damon looked up quickly just in time to raise a small ward that deflected a fireball that exploded into a nearby tree. Kalanar glared at him as he floated in the ait, supported by a whirling vortex of wind.
“It seems you remembered to ward that time, good. But don’t think I’m done yet!”
With a grunt, Damon rolled over and ran deeper into the forest, Kalanar flying over head and launching fireball after fireball at him.
“I see him!” Rainbow cried, pointing in the direction of the forest.
The group quickly changed their direction and ran towards where Rainbow was pointing, seeing Kalanar in the distance flying over the trees.
“They can fly?!” Applejack cried, “since when in the hay could they do that?”
“Well, we don’t know what kind of magic they have other than the few things Damon’s shown,” Luna replied.
“I hope Damon’s okay…” Pinchy frowned.
“I’m sure he is, sweetie,” Berry replied reassuringly, trying to hide her own uncertainty.
They cringed as another explosion echoed ahead of them.
“His method of discipline is… extreme,” Twilight winced, shuddering at the thought of Celestia doing the same.
“It’s something I’m going to have strong words with him about,” Celestia growled.
“For the last damn time, Damon. DODGE!” Kalanar screamed.
Damon yelped as a blast of fire screamed over his head and exploded behind him. He had lead Kalanar to a deserted clearing deep within the forest, far away from the town. Damon had figured that if this was going to happen, it had to happen where the innocent couldn’t be hurt.
Kalanar raised his hands again as his magic energy swirled around them, pointing towards Damon as he fired three fireballs at him one after the other. Damon braced himself and leant his body back, nearly touching the floor as two of them sailed over him, narrowly missing. He then placed his hands behind him and with a burst of strength launched himself up as the third one shot past.
He then went on the offensive. Landing on the ground he raised his hand to his side and ripped the water out of a plant nearby, killing it instantly and the water circled above him before forming into droplets. With a quick mutter under his breath, the droplets formed into sharp icles, pushing his hands out and sending the icicles, at speed, towards Kalanar.
“Not bad, still,” Kalanar stamped his foot and a wall of earth rose up, stopping the icicles, “not good enough!”
Damon’s eyes widened as a bolt of lightning blasted out from the wall of earth towards him, gritting his teeth he pulled a ward spell up that only deflected part of the spel. He cried in pain as his body was racked with electricity and he fell to one knee.
“Focus, Damon, focus,” Kalanar muttered to himself.
As Damon shakily rose to back up, Kalanar turned his head to see the others burst into the clearly and glaring at him.
“Kalanar! Stop this at once!” Celestia demanded.
“Stop attacking Damon!” Rainbow added.
“F-funny you would say that,” Damon snickered before grunting, “guys I-I’m fine… stay out of this.”
“But, Damon—” Berry started.
“I mean it, Berry…” Damon interrupted with a smirk only she and Celestia caught, “everything will be fine.”
Much to her reluctance, Celestia nodded and the group took a few steps back. Once this was done, a quick flash of light surrounded the area and a small dome of light blue magic encased the two mages.
“A shield?” Twilight said as she looked up, “surely you can break this, I mean—”
“It’s not Kalanar’s shield,” Celestia interrupted, watching Kalanar and Damon, “Damon’s put it up.”
“But, why?” Berry frowned, looking at Celestia.
“I don’t know… but I have feeling we should respect his wish,” Celestia replied. besides… I think I know what’s going on now...
Berry looked back at Damon still worried as the lich stood up and straightened himself out. Damon grunted and lifted his arms up and flames burst from his palm heading for Kalanar, Kalanar scoffed and brought his arm up in a back hand motion as a wall of water shot across and extinguished the flames on contact.
“Really, Damon? This old—”
Kalanar stopped realising, that the fire had created a large amount of steam from the contact of water that covered the area and quickly dispersed it. He saw that Damon was no longer standing where he was and he mentally cursed himself for forgetting a basic principle. He closed his eyes and waited, having a vague idea of what Damon was attempting.
“Where’d Damon go?” Applejack asked.
Celestia smirked to herself, “Wait and see.”
The ground in front of Kalanar suddenly cracked and in an instant, Kalanar leapt backwards just as a pillar of flames erupted from the earth. Landing with a thud, he smirked as Damon shot out of the ground on a small column of earth.
“Not bad, Damon,” Kalanar complimented.
“Thanks, I try,” Damon smirked.
“But you forgot something,” Kalanar chuckled.
“What’s that?”
Kalanar didn’t answer with words. His body collapsed into water as Damon’s eyes went wide and he quickly turned round, only to be greeted with a lump of earth that collided with his stomach.
Damon was sent flying into the shield and cried out as he fell to the ground, rolling over and holding his stomach.
“Dodge,” Kalanar smirked from behind him.
“I-I don’t understand any of this!” Twilight cried in frustration. “How is this discipline?!”
“Go, Uncle Bones! Beat him up like the goblins!” Pinchy cried, waving her hoof in support.
“Goblins?” Berry asked.
“I’ll tell you later, Berry Punch,” Celestia replied.
Berry blinked and returned her attention to the fight, “Still… I can’t help but worry—”
“Trust me, there is no need to fret,” Celestia smiled.
“How can ya say that though, Princess?” Applejack protested. “Damon’s getting his flank handed to him pretty hard!”
Celestia smiled to the girls as Pinchy—and now Pinkie— continued to cheer for Damon, “I ask you to trust me.”
There was some hesitant but the girls slowly nodded and turned back to watching the fight.
Damon ducked as a ball of fire flew over him and quickly retaliated with a blast of air that Kalanar easily deflected by wrapping his cloak around him, Damon cursed as he pulled a staff from thin air and slammed it into the ground causing a large fissure to stream at speed towards Kalanar.
Kalanar rolled to the right and avoided the attack, quickly firing back at Damon with several blast of fire. Damon deflected two with a ward shield but it shattered upon a third hit and was sent hurtling back into the shield once more as the fireball exploded.
“Focus, Damon!” Kalanar shouted. “If you focused on what I have taught you, I wouldn’t need to discipline you as such!”
Damon slowly rose to his feet with a low groan, smoke rising from his robes that were badly singed and shakily stood in place. He tried to focus on his magic but he felt his energy depleting due to the strain of the dome shield around them and groaned again. Damon then saw another barrage of fireballs careening towards him and he braced himself for impact, not able to dodge them.
Then it hit him.
Quickly, he focused all of his remaining power into his hands and formed a large ward shield in front of him just as the barrage struck him, all exploding loudly around him.
“DAMON!” The girls shouted.
As the smoke cleared, they all saw Damon standing perfectly fine and panting heavily, his hand still up as he smirked to Kalanar.
“F-finally… got the… hang… of it, Master” he wheezed.
Kalanar smiled and walked over to his student, “About time too, Damon. I’m proud of you.”
They chuckled to each other as Damon cancelled the shield spell around them. Kalanar helped Damon stand up and pulled out a flask containing blue liquid and handed it to him.
“Here, drink this regen potion,”
“Thanks, Master,” Damon replied as he swallowed the contents and coughed, “fuck… always hated that taste.”
“Oh, grow up you child,” Kalanar chuckled.
The two walked back over to the group. With the exception of Celestia, Pinchy and Pinkie, were all staring at the two with dropped jaws and twitching eyes, completely confused.
“What?” Damon asked.
“But… the fight… why are you… how… what?” Twilight spluttered.
“Hmm?” Damon said, “That? That was just discipline and training combined. Training for my ward spell and discipline for my actions.”
“H-how was that discipline?!” Luna demanded.
“Quite simple really,” Kalanar replied, “usually, mages will engage in magic battles when it comes to disciplinaries. It allows us to essentially force the student to ‘wake up’ and rely on their teachings, it’s a barbaric method to most people but it’s effective. Damon used to be useless at ward spells, now he can cast them, thanks to the fight.”
They blinked at him as Kalanar continued.
“And in his current lich form, I knew as well as he did that he would be more resilient to physical damage then if he were still human. Thus, allowing me to use more force than I normally do in order to punish him for his actions.”
“As I thought,” Celestia smiled.
“I’m so confused…” Rainbow muttered.
“Me too an’ all sugarcube…” Applejack added.
“Let’s all just return to Ponyville, shall we?” Celestia suggested.
“Yes, lets. I’d love to see the town myself anyway, plus there is actually things I need to discuss with you, Princess, as well as the Elements and Damon,” Kalanar replied.
As the group started to walk back, Pinchy demanding to ride on Damon’s head much to his dismay as his head still hurt slightly, Celestia felt a gently tug on her wing and looked over to see Twilight looking up at her with a slightly fearful look.
“Twilight, what’s the matter?” she asked.
Twilight bit her lip and lowered her ears slightly, “Princess… you’d never discipline me like that… would you?”
Celestia blinked at her student and rolled her eyes with a shake of her head and gave her a reassuring nuzzle, “Of course not, Twilight. I’d never do something like that to a student of mine.”
This made Twilight feel better and she smiled at her teacher, she then quickly ran after her friends followed by Celestia who momentarily frowned.
At least… not again, not since I did that to Starswirl… she thought to herself biting her lip.
As the wooden carriage trundled along the dirt path, the mare pulling it stopped for a moment to catch her breath. Using her magic she unhooked herself from the carriage and floated a map from her saddlebag in front of her.
“Let’s see… the next town is… Ponyville.”
She put the map back into her saddlebag and took out a flask of water which she took a long drink from before returning it. With a confident smirk, she re-hooked herself back onto the carriage and declared loudly to no one in particular.
“Look out, Ponyville. You are about to have the honour having the Great and powerful Trixie grace your town!”
Chapter XVII - The Great and Powerful Annoyance Part I.
Chapter XVII - The Great and Powerful Annoyance Part I.
“Good, Damon. You’ve definitely been improving,” Kalanar smiled
“No, I’m just awesome,” Damon smirked back.
Kalanar gave him a deadpan look, “Don’t push it.”
“Sorry.”
Kalanar shook as he looked at the clock on the wall in the library, “Right, I think that’s enough for today. I’m going to be heading out to that ruined castle Miss Twilight told me about,”
“Why?” Damon asked as he stretched out his back. “It’s just a ruined castle, and besides, you can just read about it. I’m sure Twilight has a book somewhere about it.”
“That may be true,” Kalanar replied as they entered the main part of the library. “But I like to see these things for myself, far more interesting.”
“If you say so. I’m going to go and see what Berry and Pinchy are up to.”
“Very well, I shall pack and be back by tomorrow morning,” Kalanar nodded.
In the main part of the library reading a book was Twilight, who looked up when she heard them enter, looking up at Kalanar with a hopeful look, “Do… you want me to accompany you?”
Kalanar didn’t hear her, as his mind was elsewhere. He walked over to the knapsack he had been gifted by Fluttershy and checked if everything was in order, having packed earlier that day. With a satisfied nod he slung it onto his shoulder.
“Alright, I shall see you tomorrow,” Kalanar called out.
“But—” Twilight started.
“Ta-ta!” Kalanar interrupted, not hearing her again.
“Take care, Master,” Damon replied.
He then left the library and briskly made his way towards the edge of town. Damon grinned as he cracked his knuckles and started for the door.
“Okay, Twilight. See ya—” Damon noticed Twilight looking down with a disappointed look on her face. “You okay?”
“Huh? O-oh, yeah. I just wanted to go with Kalanar you know? See his magic properly first hand… maybe asked some questions… given he’s a Master in your world.”
“Ooooh no,” Damon chuckled, walking over and booping her with a bony finger. “No questions, I know what you’re like when it comes to that.”
Twilight scrunched her nose and huffed as Damon scratched his chin and sat next to her, “It may look like he’s ignoring you or being rude, but that’s just how he is. He sometimes simply doesn’t hear others talking to him. That, and he’s an elf.”
“What’s that got to do with anything?” Twilight asked.
“Where we come from, elves are notoriously racist. Not all of them, but its a kinda racial thing. Tend to think they’re better than everyone else.”
“That’s horrible!” Twilight gasped. “Does this mean… he’s racist towards ponies?” Twilight asked, a hint of worry in her voice.
“Nah, he’s just like a child during the winter festival. Excited,” Damon replied. “He’s always had a thing for old ruins, can’t get enough of them the crazy old bastard.”
“I see…” Twilight replied. “Well… I’ll take your word for it, I take it you’ll still be going to Pinkie’s party later?”
Damon visibly shuddered, “I would have to be suicidal to miss it—” he paused mid-sentence. “Maybe… I should’ve told Master Kalanar about that…”
“I’m sure he’ll be fine?” Twilight replied with a hint of doubt.
“Right, anyway. See you later,” Damon said as he got up, waving the unicorn off with his bony hand.
Twilight waved him off before returning to her book and sighing, pouting as she looked over to her bookshelf and levitated over a book entitled, ‘Understanding the Stallion mind’.
As Damon walked down the busy streets of Ponyville, he couldn’t help but find himself starting to whistle a merry tune as he headed towards Berry’s house. As he walked he was greeted with friendly ‘hellos’ or a wave from the locals. Over the past month, they had gotten used to the lich walking around town in the company of Berry and Pinchy. In fact, he had made an impact on the town making it more eventful, which had spawned a motto of some of the folk.
Wherever Damon roams, something exciting will come about.
Of course, they never told Damon this, lest he find it somewhat insulting. Never the less though, Damon was at peace for once in his life. Although he would never admit it, the arrival of Kalanar brought him great joy as he now had someone from his own world he could speak to.
One thing that had started to concern him though, was the lack of activity from Dorian.
Ever since the incident with the Dalmora goblins, he hadn’t received any demands or felt the prices of the mischievous god and it troubled him. With his head lost in his thoughts, he didn’t notice the pink mare bounding towards him until he was suddenly tackled by her, making the skeletal mage yelp in surprise.
“Hiiii, Damon!” Pinkie giggled.
“Hello, Pinks, mind getting off me?” Damon asked.
“Sure Thing—” Pinkie paused and blinked down at him. “Pinks?”
“Well, yeah.” Damon started. “You call me Bones so I figured you’d like a nickname in return.
Damon tilted his head as he watched the pink mare’s eyes water up and her lip quivered. Suddenly, he yelped as she tightly wrapped her hooves around his neck and sobvbed into him loudly and somewhat dramatically.
“Oh, Bones! I knew you cared!” She blubbered. “Only true friends give each other nicknames!”
“Whoopsie!” Pinkie giggled. “Sorry, I got carried away.”
“Yeah you did…” Damon replied as he rubbed his throat. “Still can’t figure out how I can be chocked…”
“So… anyway,” Pinkie started before taking a deep breath. “Areyousuperexcitedforyourpartylateronhuh?Huh?Huh?!”**
“Damon stared at her as his mind processed her words slowly before he nodded, “Yes I am, however. Master Kalanar isn’t gunna be attending.”
Pinkie’s mane flattened as she looked at him, visibly upset. “Buh… why?”
“Well… you did arrange the party before hand and you did kinda, maybe not tell him about it.”
“Oh yeah…” Pinkie grinned sheepishly. “Nevermind! We can just have another uber-awesome super-duper party when he gets back… where is he anyway?”
“Everfree, going to have a look at that ruined castle,” Damon replied.
Pinkie gasped loudly, “The Everfree?! But that’s so dangerous! He could be attacked by—”
She stopped when she saw Damon giving her a look of amusement before she realised that Kalanar was a powerful magic user and would actually be alright by himself.
“I guess you have a point,” Pinkie giggled. “So where you heading then huh? Huh? Huh?”
“I was going over to Berry’s,” he started. “But you’re still sitting on me.”
“Whoopsie!” Pinkie grinned and lept off him before bouncing away. “See you later, Damon!”
Damon shook his head as he continued on his way towards Berry’s house. After a few minutes of walking, he eventually came to the home and pulled out the key he was given by the mare and smirked. Ever so quietly, he inserted the key and turned it in the lock before carefully opening the door as quietly as he could.
He successfully managed to get inside the house, only to hear the sound of little hooves running down the stairs and spun around just in time to catch Pinchy as she pounced him from the stairs.
“I heard you, Uncle Bones!” she giggled.
“Yes, yes,” Damon sighed and rolled his eyes. “Three-one to you.”
“Are you still playing that silly, ‘Get into the house without Pinchy noticing’ game?” Berry called from the kitchen.
“... Maybe,” Damon replied.
“Honestly, you’re like a foal sometimes…” Berry chuckled.
“You’re just a jealous lil silly-filly,” Damon retorted.
Berry paused for a moment, something about the last two words and the way he said it made her stop what she was doing. As if she should know why it was familiar to her but she was unable to put her hoof on it. She shook her head and brushed it off as some form of weird deja-vu and came out of the kitchen.
“Me and Pinchy are going to go to the park for a bit before your party tonight, want to come?”
“Sure,” Damon grinned before kneeling down. “Climb aboard!”
Pinchy giggled and scrambled onto his back before maneuvering herself so she was riding on his shoulders, her little head resting on the top of his skull whilst her body—save for the aforementioned head, front and back legs—was hidden inside of Damon’s hood.
Berry rolled her eyes but tittered as she headed for the door. Damon picked up the picnic basket she was carrying on her back and followed her out of the door, closing it carefully behind him.
“So where’s Kalanar anyway?” Berry asked.
“Oh, galavanting in the ruins of the old castle in the forest,” Damon replied as he used his free hand to hold onto Pinchy’s left back leg. “Wanted to learn more about the architecture or something, I don’t know.”
“He seems very studious,” Berry noted.
Damon nodded gently as not to knock the filly off him, “Yup, guy goes crazy over history and what have you.”
“Unlike a certain lich we know.” Berry grinned as her daughter giggled.
“Pfft, I study! Just… when you’re not around.”
Berry raised her brow and smirked, “Pinchy? How does that rhyme go when somepony isn’t being honest?”
“Liar, liar pants on fire! Hangin’ on a telephone wire!” Pinchy sang with a giggle.
“Cute,” Damon chuckled before looking to Berry. “What’s a telephone again?”
Berry rolled her eyes, “I’ll explain later. Again.”
Damon snorted as they continued to walk, Pinchy clinging to his head and giggling nearly non-stop. As they walked, they kept walking past ponies who seemed to be rushing towards the middle of the town. Eventually, they were approached by Twilight and the others.
“Hey guys,” Damon said. “Where’s everyone going?”
“Apparently there’s this ‘amazing’ unicorn putting on a show in the marketplace. Reckons she’s great and powerful.” Rainbow said with an skeptical tone.
“Were’ jus’ gunna go check it out, make sure nothin’ bad happens,” Applejack added.
Damon nodded, “Right… well we’re going to go have a picnic, so we’ll see you later at the party?”
“Wouldn’t dream of missing it, darling,” Rarity replied. “Ta-ta!”
Damon, Berry and Pinchy said their goodbyes as they continued on to the park, finding a nice spot underneath a large oak tree. Damon helped Pinchy off his shoulders and popped her down on the ground as Berry took the basket and started to set up the meal.
“What do you want in your sandwich, Damon?” Berry asked.
“Got any more of the… what was it called?”
“Peanut Butter?”
Damon grinned almost maniacally,” Yes! I shall have all of it please!”
Berry scowled at him, “You’ll have a little. You’re not the only one who loves it.”
Berry snickered and pointed her hoof at Pinchy, who was glaring at Damon and scrunching her nose, her little body shaking as she tried to seem intimidating to the lich. Damon feigned a mock gasp and backed up to the tree.
“No! Please!” he wailed. “I’ll share!”
Berry rolled her eyes as Pinchy grinned triumphantly and sat back down, being handed a sandwich by her mother. Damon took his sandwich and grinned, anticipating the delightful taste he would be enjoying. As he opened his mouth to bite into the sandwich, he suddenly vanished in a puff of smoke and the sandwich fell onto the picnic blanket. Leaving a confused Berry Punch and a shocked Pinchy whose eyes started to water up.
“Uncle Bones…?” she whimpered.
The large crowd gathered in the marketplace watches with uninteresting expressions as Trixie began to charge her horn.
“Behold!” Trixie cried as she shot her spell into the center of the stage.
But nothing happened.
The crowd stared at her expectantly as she sheepishly smiled at them and folded her ears to her head as she tried the spell again.
Stupid props! Why won’t they go off? she thought to herself.
“Is something supposed to happen?” a pony asked.
“Well this is boring…” another muttered.
Rainbow turned to Twilight, “Hey Twilight, I’m gunna head off. This is just lame.”
Twilight nodded as the rainbow maned pegasus took to the skies and flew away, being followed by some of the other
Twilight cringed as Trixie’s spell failed again. When she and her friends had arrived at the marketplace, they had been greeted with a makeshift stage with a carriage nearby. On the stage itself stood a blue unicorn mare wearing a hat and cape, her nose held high in the air.
The mare had boasted loudly about how she was the greatest and most powerful magic user in the whole of the kingdom, somehow forgetting both the princesses. But thats not what made Twilight cringe.
Trixie’s show had started off a simple and harmless magic show, impressing the townsfolk and two colts in particular, Snips and Snails. But as the show went on, the tricks got repetitive and it didn’t help that four tricks in a row had failed or backfired which is why the lavender mare was cringing.
She felt sorry for Trixie, who was being booed by the crowd.
“Maybe… she should jus’ give up?” Applejack said. “She’s kinda embarrassing herself…”
“Well, you have to give her credit for determination and showmanship. I doubt I’d have the nerves to stay on performing if a crowd turned on me.”
“I hope she can do something,” Twilight frowned. “No pony should feel this humiliated… and she’s not that bad of a magic user, I think her props are failing.”
“Could be, maybe ah should offer a helpin’ hoof later to see if ah can get ‘em fixed?” Applejack suggested.
“That might be a nice idea…” Twilight started. “That is, if she’s still here by then…”
Trixie channeled her magic as she tried to cast a spell and bit her lip, waiting for the prop she needed to work to activate. However, again, the spell failed and the prop did nothing.
The prop that was designed to go off when the spell was cast and explode into a dazzling array of fireworks in the shape of an ursa minor, but didn't. Meaning and for a sixth time in a row, a prop had malfunctioned and she was looking like more of a fool in front of the crowd.
Trixie knew she should have made double checks on that repair stallions work! she growled in her head. Next time, Trixie will fix it herself!
“Boo!” a pony shouted followed by others.
“Get off the stage!” another jeered.
Trixie scowled before she started to panic as the crowd began to disperse. Suddenly, an idea came to her head, it was a risky one. But right now she needed to get the crowd back on side after her errors.
“T-Trixie can fix this! What if Trixie, were to bring forth a creature of vast power from beyond the void?”
That got their attention.
The crowd murmured to one another as Twilight looked up to the unicorn mare along with her friends with a hint of worry and doubt in her expression. It was nigh on impossible to summon things from beyond the Equestrian plane, even the princesses had difficulty performing magic of that caliber.
“Now that is somethin’ ah’d like to see!” Applejack grinned.
Fluttershy hid behind her mane, “I hope it’s not scary…”
“I’m sure it will be fine, Fluttershy,” Twilight replied. I just hope she doesn’t mess this one up to...
Trixie closed her eyes and concentrated and gathered all the magic she could and channeled it into her horn. The horn shone brightly as a circle appeared in the middle of the stage, making the crowd gasp as an aura of magic started to spin round it, gaining speed with each passing.
There was a sudden loud explosion as the stage was engulfed by smoke from Trixie’s spell. The crowd screamed as the whole area was bathed in smoke before it started to settle. Trixie looked up from behind her little barricade she had ducked behind to see something standing up from where she had cast the summon spell, something tall, something non-pony. She quickly shook her disbelief of the fact she actually cast the spell correctly and quickly trotted to the edge of the stage.
“Trixie told you! Trixie is great and powerful, and to prove it. Trixie has summoned a creature from beyond the void!”
The crowd gasped again as something groaned from the smoke that was proceeding to the point where the unicorn had cast her spell, their eyes wide with anticipation. As the smoke cleared, their jaws dropped as they stared at just what Trixie had summoned.
A tall, skeletal figure clad in blue robes was standing in the spot. A skeleton the town was all too familiar with.
“Where’d I go just now?” asked a confused Damon as he stumbled forwards on the stage.
“Behold! Trixie’s eternally bound familiar!” Trixie declared proudly as several fireworks exploded behind her.
Damon’s jaw dropped as he simply stared at the unicorn, blinking slowly as a single word escaped his mouth.
“... What.”
Chapter XVIII - The Great and Powerful Annoyance Part II
Chapter XVIII - The Great and Powerful Annoyance Part II
“I’m sorry… what did you say?” Damon asked.
“Trixie summoned a familiar, you are now Trixie’s familiar,” the unicorn replied. “Kneel before your mistress!”
“No, no. Nope, Nada, Denied, never, not gunna happen,” Damon replied crossing his arms.
“I am the great and powerful Trixie! You will obey me!”
“And I’m a lich!” Damon screamed back. “Not your bloody follower!”
“Uhm… I hate to burst your bubble, Trixie,” Twilight called from the crowd. “But I’m afraid he isn’t your familiar. He’s Damon Lipton, our friend and a resident of Ponyville.”
Trixie looked at the crowd as murmurs of agreement filled the air, glaring down at Twilight with gritted teeth.
“N-not to say, your teleportation spell wasn’t a bad—”
“Silence!” Trixie interrupted. “He is my familiar! You’re all just trying to trick Trixie, well Trixie is to smart for that!”
The crowd once again started to murmur their agreements, albeit it louder. Trixie snorted as her anger grew and glared at Damon.
“Familiar, I order you to drench these neighsayers this—”
“Hold up,” Damon interrupted. “Say that again.”
“Neighsayers?” Trixie replied, in the same way as before.
“... Okay, I’m done for the day.” Damon replied as he wiped his hands. “I was starting to get used to the puns, but that one is just ridiculous!”
Damon lept off the stage and walked away mumbling, walking past the crowd of ponies who were giggling amongst themselves. Trixie scowled after the lich and angrily shook her hoof.
“Get back here this instant, familiar!” she shouted.
“Oh, shove off!” Damon replied.
Trixie growled as she summoned her magic, ready to teleport him to her. A light blue aura wrapped around Damon like a lasso that connected him to Trixie’s horn. He stopped as he looked behind him at the smug expression on her face.
“Now, heel!” Trixie barked.
She pulled back as hard as she could, expecting Damon to obediently walk over to her. Instead, Damon felt a little tug and looked at the aura, grasping it and shaking in anger.
“Are you kidding me?! I’m attached to this imbecile?!”
“Watch your tone, familiar.” Trixie snarled. “Trixie is your mistress! Now, get over here!”
“Oh bugger off you old fart!” Damon groaned and started to walk away.
Trixie squeaked as she was suddenly yanked off the stage by Damon by the aura, trying her best to stop him by yanking her head back. The crowd watched as Damon vanished down the road at a corner, dragging the unicorn with him as she shouted commands to him to no avail.
“She really does think she summoned him, doesn’t she?” Rarity said.
Twilight sighed, “Yes she does, I don’t blame her given he isn’t from our world and she’s never seen a human, lich thing before.”
“Should we help him?” Applejack asked.
Twilight sighed again, “I wish I could, but I have so much work to do in the library.”
“And I have too many orders to complete,” Rarity added.
“And ah’ve got mah farm chores to do, guess Damon’s jus’ gunna have to deal this on his own…”
Twilight cringed as she heard Trixie shout from across the town and shook her head.
It was a relatively quiet day in Canterlot castle. The ponies roamed about on their usual duties. However, they were completely unaware of the loud laughing that echoed deep within the statute gardens. A strange bipedal in a formal black waist coat and white shirt with a black tie complete with black formal trousers and shoes, was floating mid air in front of the statue of Discord.
“No way, you did what?!”
“I gave her the power to summon Damon, but not control him whatsoever! But she believes she can!”
Discord burst into fits of laughter inside his stone prison as the bipedal joined in, slapping its knee hard as it doubled over.
“Oh, Dorian, you bastard you!”
“I try,” Dorian smirked. “I told him I don’t like it when a part-time, on-loan-follower fails me.”
“I still don’t get why you don’t just help me out of here yourself…” Discord grumbled.
“Oh come on, Discord. Where’s the fun in that?” Dorian pouted.
“I suppose so,” Discord sighed. “I’m just so darn bored!”
“I know old friend, I know. But rest assured, Ol’ Dorian will get you out of here in no time. Then we can finally settle that—”
“You will not be settling anything, mischief god!”
Dorian slowly flipped over upside down and grinned maniacally when he saw Celestia, Luna and what appeared to be half of the Royal guard behind her,
“Tia!” Dorian exclaimed. “How are you ol’ gal?”
“Quiet, Dorian.” Celestia scowled. “I will not allow you to force Damon to assist your plans to release chaos on my kingdom again!”
Dorian blinked for a moment, “Are you still mad at me for taking that photo of you picking that large snot nugget from your nose? Because if you are I’m sorry alright? I thought the other deities would like a good laugh.”
As Discord burst into laughter again, Celestia scowled at Dorian. A unicorn guard stepped forward, equally looking angry.
“Show her some respect, demon!” he shouted. “You’ll address her as Princess Celestia!”
“Oh, you’re no fun,” Dorian frowned and clicked his fingers, making the unicorns mouth vanish.
“Captain Armor!” Luna cried as the unicorn fumbled where his mouth was.
“Still,” Dorian continued. “Least I call you a nice name, unlike Discord who calls you sun-butt.”
“Never the less, Dorian. You will release the charm on my captain and surrender yourself.”
Dorian chuckled softly as he shook his head, “Are you really going to tell me… what to do, Tia?”
Dorian slowly rose his head as his skin cracked and the guards took a couple of steps back, terrified of what they could see in Dorian’s eyes. Neither Celestia or Luna had ever seen this look about Dorian before, and it scared them. Luna’s eyes widened as she too took a step backwards, leaving Celestia as the only one to face down what was in front of them.
As the mischief god’s body began to grow in size, the clothes tearing a little bit. Celestia, Luna and the guard were shocked when they heard Discord speak.
“Dorian! What did I tell you about becoming… that thing.”
Dorian stopped and looked behind him before his features returned to normal, “Ah yes, you’re quite right, Discord.”
He turned back to the alicorn sisters and the guards and smiled politely, “My apologies, won’t happen again.”
They all stared at the strange god, unsure as to do next. When Celestia took a step forwards, Dorian backflipped and landed gently on Discords goat antler and smiled, snapping his fingers and returning Shining Armor’s mouth to normal.
“As much as I’d like to chat and be turned to stone, I have a possible, maybe-if-I-ask-him-nicely-and-offer-him-tea-and-cake, follower to check up on. Ta-ta!”
And with another click of his fingers, he was gone. Celestia groaned as she face hoofed, Luna shaking her head softly.
“That man…” Celestia sighed.
“Princess!” Shining cried. “Shouldn’t we track that fiend down and stop him? He could hurt—”
“Me and my sister will handle it personally, captain. Dorian would never harm any of our ponies. However, he is a god and thus is our responsibility if he decides to bring harm to the kingdom.”
Shining nodded as he and the other guards started to head back. Celestia turned to look at the statue of Discord and scowled.
“I won’t let you get out again Discord,” she said before smirking. “At least, not until I’m ready…”
“Oh? And pray tell, what does that mean?” Discord asked.
Celestia tittered as she and Luna walked away, “All in good time, my dear draconequus…”
The two alicorns left Discord to his thoughts, for once in his life.
Discord was confused.
“I said heel! You overgrown skelton!”
“By Varlos, will you shut up!”
“Don’t talk to Trixie like that! Trixie willl have your hide for your insolence!”
“Newsflash, I HAVE NO SKIN!”
The ponies of Ponyville watched in confusion as a very angry looking Damon stomped through the town, dragging along a unicorn—who was creating a small indent in the earth with her hooves—along behind him attached to a magic aura. He kept making his way towards the park as Trixie continued to yell at him and order commands. Damon sighed as he brought a bony hand to his face and brought it down slowly. He had long since figured out why she was attached to him, given he could detect very little power coming from her.
“If I ever get my hands on Dorian… I’m going to cut off both his ba—”
Trixie yelled as she was dragged through a stack of crates causing them to crash loudly to the ground as Damon turned a corner, interrupting his muttering.
“—with a blunt knife!”
Damon grumbled as he entered the park, finding himself struggling to move and looked behind to see Trixie holding onto the gate of the park with her hooves in a vain attempt to hold the lich back.
“You. Will. Heel!” Trixie grunted as she wrapped her hooves tighter around the gate post.
“Oh for the love of… screw this!” Damon grunted.
He was covered in a bright flash as he vanished, only to reappear near the tree he had gone to earlier with Berry and Pinchy. He sighed in relief until he felt another tug on his robes and looked back to see a startled and confused Trixie, who evidently had teleported along with him.
Damon sighed and his shoulders slumped, “Great… just great, even without that aura she is attached to me…”
With a grunt he began to walk towards the tree, Trixie now being dragged along by an invisible force she fought valiantly to take control of. Damon looked up to see a miserable Pinchy in the embrace of her mother who was trying to calm down the filly. The second Pinchy noticed Damon, she gasped and scrambled her hooves as fast as she could and pounced into his arms and held him tightly.
“Uncle Bones! You’re okay!”
“Of course I am,” Damon chuckled as he poked her nose. “I’m always okay.”
Pinchy giggled as she scrunched her nose, her mother walking up to them.
“What happened, Damon?” she asked. “One moment you were there and then the next you were gone.”
“About that…” Damon sighed.
“You useless brute! Do you not recognize your mistress when Trixie addresses you?!”
Both Berry and Pinchy looked behind him to see Trixie stomping over, sweating slightly as she tried to cast a spell on him. Berry looked up to Damon with a perplexed look and he sighed deeply.
“Long story short, little miss unicorn here teleported me to her little stage show, and I’m now bound to her in a sense.”
“In a sense?” Berry asked.
Damon nodded, “She can’t control me, no matter how much she screams it, but she is attached to my physical being via a magic bond courtesy of that bas—,” Damon paused and curved his swear word, remembering he was holding Pinchy. “Ket, Dorian.”
“You mean that weird silly man mummy told me about?” Pinchy asked.
“The one and only!” a voice cried from above them.
Damon froze as he heard the mischief gods words and looked up at the tree along with Berry, Pinchy, Trixie and some of the ponies nearby. Dorian stood on a high branch and grinned down at the confused ponies and the glaring ex-human.
Dorian arched a brow as Damon angrily pointed to Trixie, “So what if I am?”
Damon’s eye flames twitched slightly as he started to shake in anger, “Well fix it! NOW!”
“No can do, me boy!” Dorian replied as he teleported beside him, startling the small crowd that had formed.
“And why not, pray tell?” Damon scowled as Pinchy whimpered in his arms.
“Why? Well, why not?” Dorian said. “I was bored, felt like doing something fun for my bestest, will-soon-to-be greatest follower—”
“I’M NOT YOUR FOLLOWER!” Damon shouted.
“Yet!” Dorian grinned. “Not yet, my pretty.”
Damon swatted away Dorian’s hand as he patted the liches face. Dorian then walked over to Trixie and lent down to whisper in her ear.
“Don’t worry my dear, I may have forgotten to tell you that the spell will take a little bit before it properly kicks in. But I doubt that will hold someone as powerful as you back, right?”
Trixie nodded, lost in her own ego, “Quite right! Trixie will make her familiar obey her by the days end!”
Damon slapped his face as Dorina grinned maniacally.
“WONDERFUL!” Dorian shouted in glee and teleported, appearing above the crowd of ponies and spun in a circle. “Time for a celebration... Cheese, for EVERYONE!”
The ponies simply stared at him in confusion as he stared back expectantly. He landed on the ground hard suddenly, startling the ponies and pouted as he put his hands on his hips.
“Why does that only work for him? He told me everyone loves that line… guess ponies don’t appreciate cheese as much as they do over in his realm. Ah well.”
“Dorian, why are you doing this to me?” Damon demanded.
“Well… for a start, you still haven’t done what I have asked. And I’m beginning to loose my patience, so this is part one of your punishment.”
“I told you, I’m not freeing—” Damon stopped mid sentence. “What do you mean, part one?”
“You’ll see,” Dorian smiled as he started to fade away. “You’ll see…”
Damon could only shake in anger as the god of mischief vanished from sight. He stopped though when Pinchy tugged on his robes in his arms.
“Uncle Bones? I saved your sandwich for you!” she beamed.
“Thanks, Pinches,” Damon smiled. “I’m starving.”
Damon sat back with the other two as the crowd dispersed and grinned as Pinchy handed him his sandwich, he was about to bring it to his mouth when it was snatched from his grasp by Trixie who smirked at him.
“You cannot eat, familiar, until Trixie has eaten first!” she said as she sat beside him.
Damon blinked, slightly shocked before glaring as Trixie took a bite into the sandwich. Before he could do anything, Pinchy stomped up to the unicorn and glared at her with a scrunched nose.
“That’s Uncle Bones’ sandwich! You big meanie!”
“Be quiet you little brat, Trixie can eat whatever—”
Trixie felt the air grow cold as she found the eyes of Berry and Damon bearing down on her, with such anger that even Discord would be slightly scared.
“Damon may be stuck with you, Trixie,” Berry said coldly. “And whilst I know he would never hurt anyone, you dare insult my daughter again, you will have me to deal with. And you will be very, very sorry…”
Trixie swallowed loudly, “Y-yes, ma’am… T-Trixie is sorry.”
Berry sorted as she returned to her sandwich. Damon turned back to Pinchy as she handed him a sandwich she quickly made for him to replace the other, oblivious to what just happened and sat in his lap, chewing softly on her own sandwich.
Trixie sat in silence for as few moments, watching the strange family eat and took a bite out of her sandwich. She swallowed then nervously looked to Damon.
“Familiar? Can you give Trixie a glass of water?”
“I’m not your…” Damon sighed as he looked at Trixie and rolled his eyes, pulling out a pitcher of water and a glass from the picnic and poured her a drink. He didn’t want to, he just knew it would shut her up.
“This is going to be a long day…” he muttered as he bit into his sandwich.
Kalanar stood from where he was sat and continued to wander the ruined hallways of the castle, looking around as a scroll and quill floated behind him, jotting down every now and again. He’d been wandering the castle for the entire day, enjoying his time immensely as he jotted down various points of interest. He had finished for the day and had begun to make his way out, already planning a second trip.
“I just can’t believe the amount of magical energy that’s radiating from this place and this forest… simply fascinating!”
Kalanar continued to walk with a smile on his face. He came to a stop upon reaching a portrait that was nearly ruined beyond recognition, he could make out that it was depicting a battle of some sorts and tried to examine it closer.
On the bottom left was the image of what looked like a bipedal creature of sorts, possibly in robes from what he could tell given that the lower left half of the portrait was the most ruined. He could though, however, clearly see it was shooting some form of fire spell from its hand towards the image in the top right which appeared to be floating in the air, also covered in a robe of sorts. What stuck out though was the arms extending from the creature, he had to squint his eyes and lean in closer but from what it looked like, they appeared to be made of wood.
“Interesting… wonder what this is depicting? Looks like it’s taking place in the forest.”
He snapped his fingers and the quill began to jot down something as he continued to walk through the hallways. Suddenly, he stopped and looked around him suspiciously.His eyes widened as he heard a soft gust of wind blow around him, making the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.
“Something… doesn't feel right…”
He waited in the silence for a few moments before he felt a chill run down his spine. Kalanar began to slowly look around at his surroundings, a strange magical signature had made itself known to him, but only briefly. He let his magic flow from his fingers as he tried to hone in on the weird signature of magic that filled the space around him. Then, as suddenly as it came, the feeling vanished, leaving Kalanar utterly perplexed.
What in the seven realms of hell was that? he thought to himself, Maybe… maybe I imagined that? No… I couldn’t have…
He closed his eyes, trying again to detect any magical signatures around him but found himself nearly drained of his magic energy for some unknown reason. Kalanar looked around him, trying to think what was going on when he felt a new signature coming from the direction of Ponyville followed by a low rumble and he sighed. Recognizing it as the magical signature of Damon.
“I swear, if that boy has done something…”
Making a mental note to share his finding with the Princess and return at another date to investigate the strange signature, he quickly darted down the hallway and back into the main foyer and out the castle and began to make his way towards the town, not noticing the swirling ball of shadows watching him from the top of the stairs he had come from.
It floated there for a moment, the swirling mass observing the mage for a moment before it slowly made its way after him in silence.
Chapter XIX - The Great and Powerful Annoyance Part III
Chapter XIX - The Great and Powerful Annoyance Part III
Damon sighed to himself as he sipped from his cup of apple juice. Sitting beside him was Pinchy who was chomping away at her sandwich, still oblivious to what had just happened. Trixie was sitting on the other side of Damon, shifting uncomfortably every now and again as Berry continued to shoot daggers at her.
The picnic had mostly been in silence, save for a few words from Damon to Berry and vice versa. To Trixie’s credit, she had remained quiet completely. As he took another bite from his sandwich, Damon leant back and looked up into the sky, thinking about how to fix the mess he had gotten himself into.
Part one of my punishment… he thought. I dread to think what the other part is…. Maybe I can wait till tomorrow to ask Master Kalanar what I should do, or maybe inform the princess.
“Bit for your thought?” Berry giggled softly, noticing the lich staring into space.
“Hmm? Oh it’s nothing… just trying to think how I can get out of this mess, and get rid of my extra baggage.”
Damon indicated Trixie with his thumb, making the unicorn huff and glare at the lich.
“How dare you refer to your mistress as ‘extra baggage’! You insolent familiar!”
Damon groaned and laid on the blanket, bringing his bony hands over his face, “When will you get it through your skull? I’m not your familiar.”
Trixie snorted, “It’s a bad sign when Trixie’s familiar starts to display the five stages. Perhaps she will just replace you.”
“Yes, please do,” Damon grumbled.
“However, Dorian the wise told me how troublesome familiars can be on their first summon. So for now, Trixie will keep at it! You will obey me by sundown.”
“Dorian the wise...?” Damon deadpanned and roaned louder. “I hate that god so much…”
“Uncle Bones?” Pinchy asked as she clambered onto his chest. “Do you want to play a game with me?”
“Sure, whatcha fancy?” Damon smiled, tickling under her chin with a finger.
Pinchy giggled and squirmed, “I brought my frisbee!”
“Familiar, you may not ‘play games’. You are to take Trixie back to her carriage right now,” Trixie interrupted.
“And I’m the Emperor of Cyrium, like I’m going to do that,” Damon replied, sticking his tongue out at her.
Trixie’s eye twitched and she gritted her teeth as Damon stood up and walked a few feet away from the basket. Pinchy giggled as she rummaged in the basket and pulled out a bright red frisbee, holding it in her mouth as she darted away to get a good distance from Damon.
Damon clapped his hands and readied himself before blinking, “Uh… how do you play this game anyway?”
Pinchy merely grinned and cocked her head back before grunting and throwing the frisbee towards Damon. He was surprised at the throw and lept to catch it, assuming that was what he was meant to do.
Sadly, Damon misjudged the throw.
The frisbee collided with his skull, making the lich howl in pain and held his forehead. Pinchy’s ears flattened, thinking she had actually hurt him until he started to flail dramatically.
“Oh no! I’m wooooooounded!” ” Damon wailed. “I’ll never play the piano again!”
Berry chuckled and shook her head at his antics, looking inside the basket to try and find her camera in order to take a snapshot of the moment.
Trixie tapped her hoof on the ground impatiently. She was determined to get Damon to follow her, no matter what it took. And she had an idea, a very risky one, but one she was willing to try.
Pinchy ran up to Damon who was rolling on the floor, moaning in fake agony, earning the giggles of other foals who had been watching and the smiles of their parents. As Pinchy approached, Damon sat up to look at her.
Minus his head.
The parents jaws dropped as the foals watched in fascination. Trixie’s eyes widened and she backed up slightly as the headless skeleton patted where his head should be.
“I say!” Damon called from the tree. “Could you be a dear, Pinches. Kindly guide my body to me?”
Pinchy giggled and helped the body up, walking behind it and using her front legs to guide the body around as he fumbled in front of it.
Berry face hoofed but couldn't hide her smile. She’d seen the trick before and knew it was one of Pinchy’s favorites. Damon was still in control of his body, he just pretended to not be for the fillies amusement. Berry snickered as the other foals suddenly darted over and started to help Pinchy.
The parents watched with uneasiness at first but soon smiled and chuckled as the skeleton started to wander aimlessly around after the cries of direction from the foals.
Trixie merely sat there on her rump, watching with a dumbfounded expression at the display ahead of her. She had seen a quick flash of light before Damon had sat up headless and deduced that he had cast a spell that teleported his head to the tree. What she couldn’t understand was how normal everyone was acting.
This… town is mad! she thought to herself. Trixie’s familiar just decapitated itself and they’re acting as if his is normal!
She continued to study the scene in front of her as the foals guided the body to the tree where Damon rolled out of, landing in his grip and plonked his skull into place, albeit backwards.
The foals all giggled as Damon demanded to know why they were laughing at him, pretending not to notice he was facing the wrong way.
“Well, fine. Be like that! Not telling a poor, old lich…” Damon sniffled as he took a few steps, then ‘realized’ his predicament.
“Egad!” he exclaimed dramatically, making Berry face hoof out of disbelief. “I’m facing the wrong way! What should I do?!”
The foals all began to shout answers to him and he raised a hand up for silence, “I’ve got it! Okay you lot, when I say ‘now’. I want you to all say, ‘Dorian is a smelly old fart’.”
The foals giggled as their parents raised their brows at the lich, Damon ignored them and coughed.
“Okay?” he paused as they watched him intensively. “Now.”
“Dorian is a smell old fart!” they all cheered loudly.
Dorian blinked as he looked up from the chess board he was looking at on his mountain top perch, “Strange… I could’ve sworn I heard someone encouraging the youth… to insult me.”
He glared into the distance but eventually shrugged and returned to the yeti he was playing chess with.
“Now, where were we old chap?”
The yeti roared and moved a single piece forwards, Dorian stared at the board and slowly glared up at the yeti.
“Well played, sir… well played.”
dorian and the yeti began to reset the chess board as a stone with chalk engravings scratched into it changed.
Dorian: 0
Yeti: 1057
“Right! This time I will win!” Dorian declared triumphantly.
The yeti simply rolled its eyes and moved a pawn forwards two spots.
Damon’s head suddenly spun very fast on his spine, making the foals gasp as it finally stopped and locked into place. Damon gave his skull a pat down before hollering in joy.
“You did it! You saved me noggin’!” he cried. “Consider yourselves all honorary mages!”
The foals cheered and jumped up and down as Berry laughed, placing the camera away after taking the photos she had need to take. Damon picked Pinchy up as the other foals ran back to their parents and returned to his seat on the blanket. As he lifted his cup of apple juice to his lips, Pinchy ran over to collect her frisbee and Berry smirked at the lich.
“Really, Damon?” Berry asked. “Was that little ‘show’ needed?”
“What can I say? I’m just a natural performer,” he grinned.
She shook her head and smiled, lifting her cup to her lips. Trixie scowled at Damon, tapping her hoof more impatiently into the ground to try and gain his attention.
“Yes? Miss impatient,” Damon asked.
“You will, carry Trixie home. This instant!”
“This again? Why should I?”
“Well you—” she started before Damon placed a hand over her mouth, interrupting her.
“And without using the rubbish ‘I’m a familiar’ nonsense,” he said.
Trixie snorted and smirked at him. Damon didn’t like the smirk, it was something about her eyes. Of all the ponies he had met, none of them had ever given such a disgusting smirk to him.
“If you do not carry Trixie home, Trixie will have to punish you.”
“Uncle Bones! Let’s play frisbee again!” Pinchy suddenly said as she rushed over with the toy in her mouth.
Damon watched as Trixie’s eyes locked onto the object and her smirk grew wider. He then felt a magic envelop the frisbee, invisible to the naked eye and instantly worked out what it was.
A fire charm.
He gritted his teeth and slowly stood up, “You’re a piece of work… you know that?”
“Damon?” Berry asked in concern.
“I’ll see you back at the house, Berry,” Damon replied. “Sorry, Pinches, I need to go.”
“Aww…” Pinchy pouted and sat on her rump in sadness.
Trixie smirked in victory as Damon walked over to her, waiting for him to pick her up. She suddenly yelped as she was lifted into the air by an unseen forced and slowly floated behind Damon.
“H-hey! Trixie commanded you to carry her!” she shouted.
“I am,” Damon retorted with a smug smirk. “You’re lucky I didn’t zap you for what you were going to do to her and her frisbee,” he growled. “Now shush up and lets get this over with.”
Trixie huffed and scrunched her nose at the mage as she rotated slowly in the air and followed after him. She glared at the townsfolk who watched her in confusion as she floated behind the mage, some of them snickering at her misfortune.
“Trixie feels humiliated…” she grumbled.
“Well, Trixie shouldn’t have made a deal with the bloody god of mischief!” Damon replied.
“Dorian the wise said you would say that! To try and deter Trixie from her goals!”
Trixie squeaked as she was dropped from his grip and landed on the ground with a thump. Damon chuckled to himself as he clicked his fingers, opening the door to her carriage for her and watched her walk in with a smug smirk.
Happy that she finally was happy, Damon started to head back towards Berry’s house.
Only to make a weird gurgled-yelp sound as he was suddenly stopped in his tracks and tugged backwards as a bang coming from the carriage sounded through the marketplace, followed by Trixie yelping in pain. He fell onto his backside and shook his head, looking behind him to see the aura of magic still connecting him and Trixie together. Damon slapped his forehead at forgetting and groaned as a dazed Trixie stumbled out of her home rubbing the back of her head and wincing.
“Are you alright?” he grumbled.
“You, imbecile!” Trixie shouted in anger. “What do you think you are playing at?!”
“Me?! You’re the idiot that got us into this mess!” Damon shouted back.
“This wouldn’t be a problem if you just obeyed me like a familiar should!” Trixie growled as she stomped up to the lich, glaring up at him.
By now, a crowd was gathering, curious to see what had gotten the lich and unicorn this hot under the collar.
“I’m NOT your bloody familiar! When will you learn that!” Damon shouted, his patience finally breaking as he leant inches away from Trixie’s face.
“Stop it!” Trixie commanded and stomped her hoof. “I am your mistress and you will obey me!”
Damon snapped. He went to throttle the mare but managed to restrain himself and held his hands in front of her, shaking violently as he made growled in frustration and suddenly ran over to a barrel with a roar and summoned a large amount of magic into his hand and incinerated the crate into nothing but ash with a blast of lightning, the impact of the spell created a loud rumbling sound
The crowd took a step back, deciding it best to let the lich cool off. Damon stood there panting, his body shaking. Trixie, smugly smirking, trotted over to his body and looked up at him.
“Enjoy your tantrum?”
“Bite me…” Damon growled.
“Trixie knew she is your mistress,” Trixie smugly stated. “Familiars are forbidden to hurt their masters.”
That, and the princesses, Master Kalanar… not to mention the town, would have my arse for it. If I still had one Damon thought.
“Or, I didn’t really fancy being sent to prison for murder.”
“Whatever, keep denying it, familiar,” Trixie replied with a dismissive wave of her hoof. “Now, Trixie commands you to sort out our living arrangements, seeing as we cannot be apart.”
Damon groaned and walked over to a nearby house before starting to bang his head against it slowly.
This say can’t get any worse…
What no one knew, including Damon and Trixie, was the second shadow that had slowly slunk into Damon’s and fused with it, making the orignal shadow darker in colour.
Kalanar panted as he sprinted as fast as he could, leaping over fallen trees and rocks. In his right hand was a beautiful, gleaming longsword that was dancing with an icey blue aura. He hadn’t gotten much further from the castle when he had felt a chilling presence nearby and spun round, just in time to see a ball of shadow hide into the shadows of the trees.
Its large, round red eyes seemed to pierce into his very being.
He had carefully approached the spot, summoning his sword and readying a combat spell in his other hand when it had shot out and darted towards the town. Kalanar’s eyes had shot wide when he tried to identify the source of the magic but could not, only getting a dark signature from it that he didn’t recognize
But that wasn’t the worst thing.
The orb was fast. Faster than he could believe.
Kalanar became instantly concerned for the well being of Damon and Ponyville. Using some of his magic, he was able to send a orb of white light out into the air which floated alongside of him as he lept over another fallen tree.
“Princess Celestia,” he started. “I require your urgent assistance, I’ve discovered a very real and dangerous threat to your kingdom. Please hurry!”
The orb shone brightly as it recorded the elven mages voice before Kalanar nodded.
“Good,” he nodded at the orb and pointed in the direction of Canterlot. “Now, fly!”
The orb shot into the air and raced towards Canterlot as fast as it could. Kalanar returned his attention ahead of him as he continued to run, sweat dotting his brow as he came closer to the town.
“Hang in there, lad!” Kalanar panted. “I’m coming!”
The power he felt from the orbs was beyond that of Damon’s. And he feared that they could both exceed his own. And with amount of magic in the Equestrian air, he feared that the orb could prove to be too much for even the Princesses.
As Damon and Trixie walked through the town, the unicorn insisting she would walk this time.
There was a brief moment where Damon’s eyes briefly flickered from green...
... To red.
Chapter XX - The Great and Powerful Annoyance part IV
Chapter XX - The Great and Powerful Annoyance part IV
To her credit, Trixie had remained quiet for the duration of the trip back to Berry Punch’s house. During this time, Damon had allowed his mind to wander through a series of important questions that were going through it.
How would he be able to break the bond between him and Trixie?
What was Dorian’s second part of his punishment?
How much would be left of him after Kalanar finds out?
He shuddered at the last question, daring not to even try and answer that one. They soon had crossed the town and came to Berry’s home. Trixie looked over the building, inspecting every part of it.
“Trixie must say, this home is not to bad.”
“That’s… new,” Damon snickered at her giving a compliment.
“And what’s that supposed to mean,” Trixie snorted.
Damon chuckled and raised his hands up, “Nothing, nothing. Come on, lets go and tell Berry the bad news.”
Trixie scowled at the lich as he pulled out a set of keys from a pouch on his robes and unlocked the door, entering and being followed by the unicorn. Once inside, Trixie began to inspect her surroundings again and sniffed.
“Not too bad, could be a bit more extravagant but Trixie will have to suffice for now.”
“Damon?” Berry called before looking down the hall from the kitchen and seeing Trixie. “What is she doing here?”
Trixie nervously swallowed as the mother glared daggers at her. Damon sighed and walked over to Berry, poking her nose and bringing her out of her death glare.
“Long story short, she’s either got to stay here or I go live with her.”
“But why?” Berry asked, upset at the thought of him leaving.
Damon sighed again, “Observe.”
Berry watched as he opened the front door and started to walk. Trixie yelped as she started to get pulled along by the aura connecting them and screamed profanities at the lich for startling her. Damon then stopped and Trixie huffed, re-entering the house and pulling the lich behind her.
“See?” he asked.
Berry sighed and nodded, “I see. And how long is this going to last?”
“Well… I’m going to see what Master Kalanar makes of it, and see what he says. Hopefully, he’ll know a spell that can cancel this curse.”
Berry groaned and bit her lip before sighing in defeat again, “Fine, she can stay in your room. Just… make sure I don’t catch her being rude to Pinchy again.”
“Trust me, she won’t,” Damon nodded before leaning down and whispering. “Least you’re not stuck to her.”
Berry giggled as Damon snickered and headed for the stairs, “Come on, Trixie. This way.”
“Where are we going?” the unicorn asked.
“Showing you where you’re sleeping,” Damon replied.
Berry returned to her dishes she was cleaning with a smirk on her lips. Berry knew full well where she was going to be sleeping, She twitched her ears as she quietly waited. The mare stopped when she heard the footsteps above her approach Damon’s bedroom and started to count down.
“3… 2… 1…”
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN TRIXIE HAS TO SHARE A BED WITH YOU?!”
Celestia sipped from her cup of afternoon tea as a lovely breeze gently blew over her, Luna and Blueblood. They had finished with the morning court earlier than expected and decided to have a nice lunch of tea and sandwiches out in the palace gardens. Luna—who was pouring a large amount of sugar into her cup—hummed softly to herself.
“Auntie?” Blueblood asked, watching the white sugar rapidly fill the cup. “Isn’t that enough?”
“Fret not, dear nephew,” Luna dismissed him with a hoof. “I’ll be fine.”
Blueblood looked to Celestia who merely shook her head at him, “I spent years trying to curve her sugar habit, tried and failed.”
Blueblood decided it was best not to press any further, he simply levitated his own tea to his lips and continued to watch as Luna’s tea became nearly entirely sugar.
“Besides, I like the hit it brings,” Luna giggled.
Again, Blueblood looked to Celestia, “But what about the night court? Surely Auntie Luna will be crashed by then!”
Celestia giggled, “How do you think she is awake in the day, Blueblood. Lu-Lu created a spell for herself just over a month ago that allows her body to require less sleep than the average ponies.”
“I see… how did she manage that?” he asked.
“Well, it took a lot of magic,” Luna replied. “Tia helped me.”
Celestia nodded, “Mhm, it took a lot out of us, but I think it was worth it.”
“So…” Blueblood started. “When she is tired and I take over the court, that’s when the spell is essentially requiring her sleep in order to work?”
“Correct,” Celestia smiled.
Blueblood smiled as he nibbled a sandwich, sighing happily as another breeze of wind blew over the family. As they continued to enjoy themselves, Celestia’s ears flickered at the sound of humming that was in the air.
“Do you two hear that?” she asked.
Luna looked up and flicked her ears, “Now that you mention it… I can.”
Blue blood tilted his head as he saw a small orb whizzing towards them, “Uh… Aunties?”
They both looked in the direction he was indicating and both saw the orb. Just as Luna went to charge her magic up, thinking it was a threat, Celestia raised her hoof and calmed her sibling down.
“Hold on, I can sense Kalanar’s magic on it.”
Luna nodded and watched as the orb came closer before stopping in front of them. There was a brief pause before it shone up and they heard Kalanar’s message. Immediately, the two sisters stood up.
“Guards! Ready our carriage at once!” Celestia cried.
Two nearby guards saluted and raced off. Celestia then turned to Blueblood and placed a hoof on his shoulder.
“You are in charge until our return.”
Blueblood nodded as he watched his two aunts race off towards the carriage holding, Celestia sending off a scroll to Twilight. He sighed and sipped his tea, a little downhearted the lunch had been ruined. Blueblood cast his gaze in the direction of the small town and frowned.
Be safe… he thought to himself.
“Trixie will not sleep in this bed with you, familiar!”
“Who said you were going to sleep in the bed?! You’re sleeping on the floor in a sleeping bag!”
The Great and Powerful Trixie, does not sleep on the floors! You sleep in the bag!”
“This is my room!”
“And I’m your Mistress!”
The two stopped yelling at each other and flinched as they heard Berry yelled up from downstairs.
“BOTH OF YOU WILL SLEEP OUTSIDE IF YOU DON’T COME TO AN AGREEMENT!”
Damon looked at Trixie and she looked back at him and they both sighed. Damon scratched his skull and groaned in annoyance.
“Look, how about I make a magic barrier in the middle so we each have a side?” he asked.
Trixie pondered his suggestion for a moment whilst tapping her hoof on her chin, “Trixie… feels this is acceptable. But tomorrow, you will buy Trixie a new bed!”
“Fine, fine. As long as you quit whining!” Damon replied.
Damon rolled his eyes and waved his hand over the bed, there was a flash of white as a line erected up in the middle of the bed. Trixie walked over to the bed and moved her hoof over the middle, meeting an invisible barrier that clunked when her hoof touched it. Satisfied, she nodded and turned to Damon. She was about to speak when the door opened and Pinchy raced in, pouncing at Damon who caught her.
“Uncle Bones! Me and the girls are going to Sugarcube corner, can you come with me?” she grinned.
Damon grinned back and cuddled her to his chest, “Of course I will, I could go for a—”
“Familiar!” Trixie barked. “You will go nowhere, Trixie wishes to rest.”
“No can do,” Damon replied.
Trixie snorted, “And why not? I’m your Mistress, you will obey me!”
“I have a Pinches, your argument is invalid,” Damon replied as he squeezed the giggling Pinchy.
“But… but…”
Damon ignored her as he started to squeeze Pinchy’s belly repeatedly as she giggled, “And I shall call her squishy and she shall be mine, and she shall be my squishy!”
Pinchy kept giggling as she wriggled in the lich’s grip. Trixie scowled at Damon, but she was tired, so groaned in defeat.
“Fine, Trixie will come with you. But you will buy Trixie a cupcake.”
“Fine, fine. Lets go.”
Damon sat Pinchy on his shoulders as she clung on with a grin and he started to head out the door. Trixie sighed as she followed him out and down the stairs, Berry waiting for them.
“Don’t be out too long, okay? And please Damon… don’t let her eat too many sweets…”
Damon nodded, “Alright, will do.”
“Awww…” Pinchy pouted.
Berry giggled, “You have dinner to eat still, remember?”
“Oh yeah…” Pinchy smiled sheepishly.
“Alright, see you later, sweetie. Love you.”
“Love you to, mummy!”
“I get love?” Damon asked as Pinchy gave her mother a pouty look with puppy eyes.
Berry rolled her eyes and shaked her head, “Love you to, Damon.”
Trixie snorted as she nudged Damon with her horn towards the door, Damon snickered as he walked out being followed by the mare. The trio made their way through the town as Pinchy and Damon sand a random song loudly, much to the annoyance to the unicorn mare.
As they turned a corner into the street where the shop was located, they spotted the rest of the cutie mark crusaders as well as some of the other foals of the town heading into the shop.
“Quick! We’re gunna be the last there!” Pinchy cried,
“No we’re won’t,” Damon smirked. “Hold on Pinches.”
Pinchy giggled as she held tightly and in a flash of light, Damon teleported. They appeared in the shop, startling everyone inside and Damon chuckled, seeing the last one to enter was Button Mash.
“Hah, told you!”
“Score! Hurray for Uncle Bone!” Pinchy cried.
There was a sudden flash and Trixie appeared beside them in the air, giving a startled yelp as she crashed into the floor.
“Oh, hey, Trixie,” Damon snickered.
“Next time!” Trixie snorted as she stood up and straightened her hat. “Warn Trixie before you do that!”
“Yeah, yeah,” Damon muttered.
Pinkie bounced over to them in order to greet them, grinning from ear to ear.
“Hi Damon~!” she said in a sing song voice.
“Hey, Pinks. Got a table for three?”
“Uhuh! I heard about what happened earlier, sucks doesn’t it?” Pinkie replied.
“Hey!” Trixie snorted.
“Don’t even know the half of it,” Damon chuckled as he followed the pink mare.
“Bloody yeti… I call hacks!” Dorian grumbled.
The mischief god put his hands in his pockets as he continued to stomp through the Everfree forest in a strop. He’s lost another thousand or so games to the yeti and in a fit of anger, had incinerated him before storming off and going for a stroll in the forest.
“Ah well, best I’d be getting on with Damon’s next pun—”
He was interrupted as he heard two voices approaching him. Dorian slunk into the shadows and waited, before two small colts, one chubby and one lanky, came into view.
“Gee, I dunno, Snips,” the tall one said. “Isn’t this dangerous?”
“Well duh!” Snips replied. “But we gotta show the town that Trixie is the best! She did summon that bone guy!”
“But… he has been living in town for a month now, right?” the tall one asked.
“Not important,” Snips waved a dismissive hoof. “What is important is we find—”
The two stopped as they came to a cave and Snips grinned.
“This is it, Snails! This where we’re gunna find one!”
Dorian watched in amusement as the two entered the cave, only to run out seconds later as a roar rumbled from within, and run screaming all the way back to town.
Dorian quickly stepped out and headed to the cave before. He clapped his hands together and entered it, the area lighting up as the god walked deeper into the cave.
“Hello? Anyone home~?” he called out in a sing-song voice.
A loud rumbling roar was his reply and he looked up as the purple and black, star patterned, towering hulk started to rise up before him. Dorian blinked and grinned maniacally at it before his eyes started to turn pure white, his skin cracking and a few whiskers appeared on his face.
“You… are purrfect for Damon’s punishment part two… just got to… brrreak you first.”
Birds flew off in different directions as two roars filled the cave, one of something attacking, and the other from fear.
Kalanar panted as he raced into the town and looked around, trying to hone in on the dark magic signature. He growled in frustration when he couldn’t detect it anymore and his sword vanished.
“I need to find Damon,” he muttered. “Need to find him and whatever it was I saw…”
He took a few deep breaths in order to calm himself and straightened out his robes before starting to walk. He figured heading over to Berry Punches house would be the best place to start, given his residence there. However, a thought occurred to him.
He didn’t know where she lived.
A further thought occurred to him.
He never asked Damon where she lived.
With a sigh and shake of his head, he looked around to find the nearest pony. He recognized the one that was selling apples as Applejack and briskly made his way over there. The orange mare looked up, seeing the elf approach her and gave him a friendly smile.
“Well howdy there, Mister Kalanar. What can ah do ya for?”
“Good afternoon, Miss Applejack. I was wondering if you could be so kind as to direct me to Miss Punch’s house?”
“Sure, jus’ gimme a sec,” she replied.
Kalanar waited for her to put a ‘closed’ sign on her cart before smiling to him and leading him down a road. As they walked, she looked up at the mage with curiosity.
“So, somethin’ wrong, partner?” she asked.
“Nothing is, why’d you ask?” he replied.
“Somethin’ ‘bout your face, it says that somethin’ is bothering you.”
“How can you tell that from a persons face?” he asked, raising a brow.
Applejack smirked, “Ah ahm the element of honesty, after all. I just find it easier to read ponies is all.”
“Right, right,” Kalanar nodded. “If you must know, everything is fine to a degree. Just need to talk to my student about something.”
“To a degree?”
“Yes.”
Applejack gave him a suspicious look but shrugged as they carried on. They soon arrived at Berry’s home and he knocked on the door, waiting patiently. Berry opened the door and looked up at him and smiled.
“Oh, hello, Kalanar.”
“Afternoon, Miss Berry,” Kalanar replied. “I was wondering if you knew where Damon was.”
“Ah, he’s over at Sugarcube corner. You know how to get there?” Berry replied.
“Ah can show him, sugarcube,” Applejack smiled.
Berry smiled back, “Okay, Applejack. I’ll see you later.”
They said their goodbyes and Applejack and Kalanar started to make their way over to the shop. On the way they saw the rest of the elements along with Spike making their way over to the shop. After a quick hello, Twilight informed them that they were meeting the princesses over at the library but were going to alert Pinkie and Applejack herself, upon finding out Damon was related to what the princess was going to tell them they all decided to go to the shop to get Pinkie Pie together.
As they entered the shop, Pinkie waved to them, as did Damon and Pinchy. Trixie’s jaw dropped upon seeing the other humanoid walk in.
“Damon! Thank Varlos I found you,” Kalanar said.
“What’s wrong, Master?” Damon asked.
Trixie scowled, shaking her self out of her shock, “He’s not your Master, Trixie is!”
Both mages and the filly ignored her as Kalanar continued.
“I was tracking something from the castle, it was—” he saw Pinchy and some of the ponies looking at him and sighed to Damon. “Best talk in my native tongue, I don’t want to scare anyone here.”
“Okay, so whats the problem?” Damon asked.
“I was in the castle when I felt an odd magic signature, and then I felt your magic going off like an explosion.” Kalanar said.
“Yeah, was angry at the unicorn so took it out on a crate,” Damon replied.
“Why?” Kalanar asked, looking at Trixie.
“Long story, will tell you later. Now, what about this magic?”
“It was dark, Damon. Dark magic.”
“Like, our dark or Equestrian dark?” Damon asked a little concerned.
Kalanar sighed softly, “I couldn’t tell, it was too powerful for me to fully recognize it.”
“I see… so what now?”
“It was heading for the town, I alerted the princesses via my scribe ball and they should be arriving here soon. I need your help finding it, Damon, discreetly. I don’t want to cause any unnecessary panic if it isn’t here.”
Damon nodded, “Alright, I’ll take Pinches home first… but the unicorns coming with us.”
“Why?”
“One word, Dorian.” Damon grumbled.
“What has he done this time?” Kalanar asked, his eye twitching a little.
“Let’s just say… he decided we needed to bond,” Damon sighed.
Kalanar groaned as a light aura appeared around the two and he slapped his forehead. He then smacked the back of Damon’s skull. The ponies all stared at the two, confused as to what they were discussing in such a strange dialect.
“You’re an idiot…” he sighed, speaking normally again. “Hold on, let me fix it.”
Kalanar concentrated for a moment as his eyes shone brightly, he started to shake and pant as he held the aura in his hand making it glow like his eyes. Trixie watched in awe—and slight fear—as the aura suddenly vanished.
“Okay,” the elf panted. “That was tricky… you two are still attached, but it should break within the next twenty four hours.”
Before Damon could say a word, a trumpet sounded, announcing the arrival of the princesses. The two mages, along with the rest of the customers exited the shop and bowed upon seeing the two princesses standing there.
“Thank you for coming, your highness’” Kalanar said.
“Good afternoon, my little subjects. And good afternoon, Damon and Kalanar,” Celestia replied
“We came as soon as we could, although we cannot feel it now, we did detect a hint of dark energy as we approached,” Luna replied.
Kalanar nodded, although groaning as she let slip what he was trying to hide as Celestia gave her sister a glare along with Kalanar. Making the dark alcorn smile sheepishly a she realised her mistake.
“Thats why you needed to find Damon?” Applejack asked as she and her friends looked up at him, having overheard the princess. “‘Cos of this ‘dark energy’?”
The ponies began to murmur in worry with one another as Kalanar sighed, “Yes… but please remain calm. Me and Damon will be investigating it along with the Princesses, you do not need to be afraid.”
Some of the ponies murmured again, but Applejack and the other elements merely smirked at him, save for Fluttershy who was a little nervous.
“We are the elements, Master Kalanar,” Twilight beamed. “We can help!”
“Alright, but you need to be care—”
“RUN, RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!” Snips yelled.
“MONSTER!” Snails added.
They all watched in confusion as the two colts ran past screaming, before a loud roar rumbled over the town, making them turn around in the direction they came from.
“WHAT IN TARNATION IS THAT THING?!” Applejack screamed.
The ponies all screamed seeing a large mass rising up from the border of the town in the forest that formed into a giant blob of shadows, two giant red eyes forming as it let out a loud and powerful roar. Its body was a mixture of black and white spots, stripes and zig-zags that were continuously changing pattern, to long, clawed arms shot out of it and from atop its head.
A lone figure stood.
“LOOK WHAT I MADE~!” Dorian gleefully shouted in a sing song tone.
“Everyone, get to safety. Now!” Kalanar barked.
The ponies needed no telling twice, they all made a run for the outskirts of town ,desperate to get away from the hulking monstrosity.
“Spike, take Pinches and go find Berry then get out of here,” Damon ordered the little dragon.
Spike nodded and took Pinchy’s hoof, but stopped when Pinchy whimpered up at Damon.
“Uncle Bones?” she whimpered.
“I’ll be okay, Pinches. You need to protect your mother okay?” Damon reassured her with a hug. “Can you do that for me?”
She nodded and sniffled.
“That’s my niece, now go with Spike. Go.”
Pinchy nodded as she and Spike ran off, Damon watching as ponies alerted ponies who were still in their homes and turned around to look at the monstrosity.
Kalanar summoned his sword in his right arm as did Damon, both glowing orange and blue respectively. Celestia, Luna and Twilight’s horns all started to glow as Kalanar glared up at the monster.
“How shall we do this?” Celestia asked.
“Firstly, order your guards to stay with the civilians,” Kalanar replied.
Celestia nodded and looked to the guards that had accompanied them, they saluted and raced after the civilians as Kalanar continued.
“Now, first objective, we lure it into the forest away from the town. Second objective, we kill it,” Kalanar said.
“Easy enough,” Luna smirked.
The girls looked a little nervous as he said the word, but nodded regardless. Trixie gulped nervously.
“W-what about Trixie?” she asked. “T-the bond isn’t broken yet!”
“Stay close to me, Trixie. Okay?” Damon said, giving her a reassuring nod.
“Like Trixie has a choice…” she mumbled.
“PART TWO, DAMON! HAVE FUN~!” Dorian shouted before vanishing.
Damon growled under his breath as his sword burned bright orange as the flames danced around it, looking to Kalanar with a nod.
“Lets go!” Celestia ordered.
Chapter XXI - The Great and Powerful Annoyance Part V.
Chapter XXI - The Great and Powerful Annoyance - Part V
Prince Blueblood sighed softly for what seemed like the one hundredth time that hour. He was in the large boardroom that was often used for important meetings with the princess, given that it was out of the way from anyone who would try to listen in on the conversations that took place within its walls.
He was currently in a meeting with several of the big-wig military personnel, discussing the subject of the captains replacement.
“I say, Cooper Hand would be an excellent choice. He did bust that gang the other day,” an old looking unicorn said.
“True, but he is only new, Colonel. Not to mention the… incident between him, the new Lunar recruit and her highness Princess Luna,” a pegasus replied.
The crowd murmured in agreement as their heads nodded. Blueblood looked at the clock on the wall as he watched the seconds slowly and tormentingly tick by.
“What about Lieutenant Shining Armor?” Blueblood said suddenly. “Isn’t he due a promotion? His record is spotless and he is the brother to Twilight Sparkle, my aunts student. So you know he is a good egg.”
The ponies murmured to one another before the unicorn turned and smiled at the young prince.
“A fine choice, we shall see to it that Shining Armor is made the next captain of the guard after Steel Wing’s retirement next month.”
Blueblood smiled to himself, happy he made a good call. He was about to get up, thinking that the meeting had come to an end. Only for the unicorn to speak up again.
“Now... onto the matter of the defences…”
Blueblood slumped in his chair and held back a groan.
I wonder if my aunts are as bored as I am? he wondered to himself.
“Watch out, Tia!” Luna shrieked.
Celestia barrel rolled out of the way just as the monsters arm swung for her, narrowly missing her by mere inches . It let out a scream of anger as it swung its body round, the rubber, bendy like arms swinging with it and trying once more to swat the two alicorns in the sky. Luna cried out in pain as she was clipped by one of the arms and spun towards the ground, only to flare her wings out and push down with as much force as she could muster to balance herself once more.
“Are you okay?” Celestia called out, blasting another beam of magic at the monster who merely growled in annoyance.
“Yes, sister. I’m okay,” Luna replied.
She shoot into the sky and charged her horn before she started flying in a circle around the monster as it kept heading to the others, shooting it rapidly with blasts of magic, each one exploding on contact making it roar in pain.
“Tia! Nothing’s working!” Luna cried, ducking under one of its arms as it swung for her.
Celestia gritted her teeth. No matter what the two sisters did, their magic wasn’t making a dent, almost as if Dorian had purposely made it so they were unable to kill it.
“Just keep distracting it! We need to give Damon, Kalanar and the Elements more time!” Celestia shouted back.
“Back in the day, the soldiers would do this sort of thing!” Luna snorted, blasting the monster in the face square on.
Celestia had to hold back a snicker, despite the fighting, “Times have changed, besides. I thought you enjoyed fighting evil?”
“Who said I wasn’t enjoying this?” Luan retorted, hitting the monster once more with a blast that made it stumble backwards.
Below them, the elements as well as Trixie were surrounding Damon and Kalanar, were currently chanting under their breath. They were both standing opposite one another with their palms touching, each hand glowing a bright light. Around them, the elements had their respective amulets on and a white strand of energy that was entwined with a beam made out of rainbow like energy was connecting them all, Trixie adding in her own power as best she could. Kalanar had planned on using the magic of the elements to boost his and Damon’s own power into a powerful beam that would hopefully destroy the monster Dorian had created.
“Ready, Damon?” Kalanar asked.
“Ready!” Damon replied.
“Now!” he shouted at the girls.
The elements lifted their heads up into the air, their eyes all glowing a bright white as they were lifted into the air slightly. Then they hit Damon and Kalanar with the rainbow and white beam of energy. Kalanar and Damon both grunted slightly as the energy from the elements seared through them, causing them slight discomfort. Inside Damon’s mind, a silent roar of pain cried out unbeknownst to the lich.
The then focused the magic flowing through them into a ball of pure energy and shot it at the monster creating a bright fallout of light around them. The monster turned around upon hearing a loud noise and was instantly greeted by the beam smashing into its face with the speed of a locomotive. It roared out in pain as it was pushed back by the beam before a large explosion of white light engulfed the area.
The two humans and ponies covered their eyes as the light temporarily blinded them. When the light disappeared, they couldn’t see a trace of the monster, save for the large area of forest land that had been destroyed in the blast that stretched out for as far as they could see.
Damon and Kalanar panted, having used up a large amount of their own energy to cast the spell. Taking down a god created monster was not an easy feat. The elements were also tired, the cost of using the elements starting to take its toll on the physically. *
Celestia and Luna landed beside them and started to cast a energy rejuvenation spell on the group.
“Good job, everypony,” Celestia smiled.
Luna nodded in agreement, “Indeed. Quick and simple, now we should go back and—”
A loud roar interrupted her and the looked towards where the monster had been a moment ago. They stared in silence for a few moments before a second roar caused them to take a step back slightly.
“B-but how…?” Twilight stammered. “W-we hit it with the elements!”
“Tch… nothing is ever simple, is it, Master?” Damon scoffed as he cracked his knuckles.
Kalanar sighed and shook his head, “Sadly not… guess we should finish off what we started?”
Damon nodded and the two mages took a step forward. When they stopped, they both suddenly shone brightly for a brief moment before the others gasped at what they saw. They were no longer wearing the robes they had been wearing, rather, ones that were adorned into armor.
Kalanar was wearing a set of pure white robes with a matching metal breastplate that extended into long metal gauntlets, his head covered by a hood and mouth cloth. Damon was wearing a similar gettup, although his robes were a dark crimson and instead of the dress cut that covered his legs, it was a semi cut that showed his legs wearing dark crimson trousers. Kalanar’s breastplate had etchings that looked wintery whilst Damon’s had etchings that resembled fire.
“Wah?” Trixie said dumbly.
“Battlemage armor,” Kalanar replied. “Something is preventing the elements from working, I’m not sure if it’s Dorian’s magic or what, but I’m not holding back anymore .”
Before anyone could reply, the monster rose from the trees from a glopy mess it had crumbled into from the first attack, once again regaining its form and snarling loudly. Kalanar turned to look at the group.
“This is our fight. You need to erect a defensive barrier over the town, just in case something doesn’t go according to plan. And pray that the magic will hold it off…”
Celestia wanted more than anything to help the two, but deep down, she knew it would be fruitless. Given the elements had been used already and had hardly wounded the monster at all and the element bearers themselves could risk passing out if they tried using the powerful attack again, she decided the best thing was to let the mages deal with the issue and put herself, her sister and the elements as the second line of defense.
“Alright, Kalanar… we will fall back to the town and erect a barrier.”
“Just… be careful, please,” Twilight said softly.
Kalanar nodded, “We will, Miss Twilight. Don’t worry about me.”
“I was kinda talking to Damon…”
“Hey!” Damon protested.
Kalanar chuckled as he smiled at the unicorn under his mask. He turned to the monster as it started to approach them once more when Trixie suddenly shouted with a clear tone of panic in her voice.
“B-but what about T-Trixie? I can’t move away from my familiar!”
Damon ignored her calling him familiar and knelt in front of her, looking her directly in the eyes, “Don’t worry, Trix. I’m not gunna let you get hurt, just hold on tight okay?”
“Hold on, what do you meeaAAAH!” Trixie squealed as Damon hoisted her onto his back.
“Ancestors be with you,” Celestia said softly.
“And gods be with you,” Damon replied.
The two mages then launched into the air on twin pillars of earth in an arch at the monster, Trixie screaming as she held on for dear life. The others watched them for a moment before falling back, Luna and Celestia helping them along due to their tiredness.
The twin pillars of earth came to a stop and the mages shot off from them, Kalanar twisted his body round in an arc and in an instant a blizzard enveloped him and he transformed into a large snow hawk that screeched as it arched down then up into the sky, high above the monster. Damon on the other hand, opened his hands and an ancient looking staff made of a dark looking wood, the end curling around a glowing red gem appeared in his right hand.**
Damon landed on the ground with a thud and twirled his staff around before pointing it at the monsters feet, erecting a row of fire that caused the monster to stop in its tracks and try to go around it.
Trixie stared at the fire, watching in amazement as the foliage around it remained unburnt from the fire. She then heard the snow hawk screech above her and it swooped down to intercept the monster as it tried to move around the fire. Kalanar opened his beak and a stream of snow and ice shot out, hitting the ground and forming an ice wall in front of the monster, forcing it to take several steps backwards.
I see, they’re forcing it backwards away from the town. Trixie thought to herself.
The monster roared as it decided to try and charge through the fire in order to get to Damon. Damon saw this and raised the staff upwards, making the fire shoot upwards till it was nearly the same height as the monster. Trixie heard it roar in pain as she felt the temperature of the flames increase, yet still leaving the foliage intact.
Kalanar screeched again as he soared into the air, the wall of ice rising with him to match the wall of fire. Trixie watched in awe as the two forced the monster to move further away from the town.
Celestia, Luna and the others watched in awe at the special. By now, they had gotten the residents to come back into the town in order to create the barrier around them. They were all watching the battle with amazement as the monster tried to avoid the combination of ice and fire.
Pinchy sat on her mothers back as she watched, her mouth open in awe as the pillars of fire and ice rose up and down, making the monster move further into the distance.
“Go Uncle Bones!” she cheered.
The townsfolk started to cheer behind her, stomping their hooves as the battle raged on. And it wasn’t just them watching.
“Your highness? Should we go and assist?”
Blueblood stared down off the balcony at the spectacle below. It was a clear day and on those days, Ponyville was visible from the high point of Canterlot as was a lot of towns and cities in Equestria on a clear day. When the meeting had finally come to an end, he had exited the room and headed to the balcony for some fresh air. As he had arrived, he heard a roar rumble in the distance and rushed to the edge of the balcony along with several other ponies.
They watched in surprise as a large black and white monster was being pushed back into the forest away from the town of Ponyville, which was encased in a large dome, by a giant white bird and something that was shooting fire but was unseeable. the crowd muttered amongst themselves as they tried to figure out what was going on.
“My lord?”
Blueblood shook his head and turned his attention to the guard that had addressed him, “No, my aunts are down there along with the elements of harmony. They will be alright, we need to remain here just in case that monstrosity heads for Canterlot.”
“Very well, my lord,” the guard nodded.
Blueblood turned his attention back to the battle, hearing the sounds of cameras going off around him and he bit his lip.
That is’t aunt Celestia or Luna fighting… is it Damon? Just what is going on down there?
As they pushed the monster back more and more, Damon was becoming more and more aware of something. Everytime the monster was pushed back, regardless of if it was Kalanar or himself doing it, the monster only went for him. Completely ignoring Kalanar. He tested his theory by running in circles around it, seeing if it would head towards the town or focus on Kalanar in the skies. But each time it would always keep its focus on Damon.
“Trix, you seeing what I’m seeing?” he asked.
Trixie nodded. She’d come under the impression that the monster was focusing on Damon as well, “Trixie has, what’s your plan?”
“This.”
Damon suddenly launched himself into the air on a column of earth which came to a sudden halt near the monster’s head. He arched over it in the sky as he spun his body—being careful not to make Trixie fall off his back—and point his staff at the monster, encasing it in a cone of fire.
“What are you doing, Damon?” Kalanar screeched as he flew under the lich, letting him land on his back.
“I have a plan, given the monster’s only going for me!” he shouted over the winds racing past as Kalanar encircled the beast which roared as the fires danced over its body.
“I know, seems Dorian created it for the sole purpose of attacking you,” Kalanar agreed.
“Aren’t I lucky,” Damon replied with a grumble. “Anyway, my plan is to draw it away from the town as much as I can and take it on myself.”
Kalanar hesitated for a moment, “And Miss Trixie?”
“I swear by almighty Varlos and the creator Xerillion she will not come to harm, Master,” Damon said with a confident and serious tone. “I need to you to help the town with their barrier, I get the feeling theirs won’t do much good against the monster.”
Kalanar nodded and flapped his wings as he swooped to the ground below, barrel rolling and letting Damon free fall to the ground and shot back into the sky. Damon stuck his arm out and a square of earth with a semi circle cut out that extended from the top and curved into the ground arose, allowing him to land and slide down to the ground carefully.
He looked up along with Trixie to see the monster dispel the flames and turn round, glaring down at the two. With a loud roar it suddenly morphed into a multi-legged creature that slammed into the ground, its eyes morphing into twin bulgin bulbs that swiveled in opposite directions, a large forked tongue lashed out as it stomped towards them at speed flattening any trees that were in its path.
Damon quickly spun around and started to run, the creature gaining on him with every step. Trixie whimpered slightly as she watched the abomination close the gap between them.
“D-Damon?” she asked.
Almost… almost… Damn though, ignoring her.
As the monster came into striking distance, Damon suddenly stopped and spun round. with a twirl of his staff in both hands, he clipped the ground and brought it along, swinging it into the air. As he did, a sharp pillar of earth with a pointed end sht out of the ground with lightning speed, slamming straight into the chin of the monster and forcing its head up where it pierced the skin and ramming through its jaw, eliciting a high pitched shriek of pain.
As Trixie shut her eyes tightly to try and keep the sound of the monsters pained shriek out of her mind, Damon cursed himself, knowing he had only clipped part of it.
Just as was about to try another spell, the monster ripped its head off the spiked earth, splitting its head into two. Damon thought for a moment that that might have killed it, however, his slight hope was dashed as the monster’s two heads merged back into one.
Hept back, just as a tendril slammed into the ground. “Things couldn’t get any worse!”
As if on cue, the monsters eyes shone brightly and a loud hum emitted from them as it blasted lightning from them, hitting the ground and making it crackle under the sheer force. Damon started to run in a circle as the lightning bolts destroyed the ground behind him as it gave chase leaving long trench marks in the earth.
“The universe just loves proving me wrong, doesn’t it?” he shouted.
“You make it too easy!” Trixie shouted back.
Just as he ran, he jumped over the tail that the monster was sporting in its current form and the lightning followed, hitting the tail and electrocuting the monster which wailed in pain and jolted slightly, the lighting coming to a stop.
“Thank you, the universe!” Damon shouted at the sky.
He stopped running when and Idea came to mind. Damon turned his head and looked at Trixie dead in the eye.
“I’m going to trap us with it in a barrier.”
“Are you crazy?!” Trixie shouted. “We’ll be trapped and—”
“Do you trust me, Trix?” Damon interrupted.
“I…” Trixie started.
“Do. You. Trust. Me?” Damon repeated.
“... Yes, Trixie does.” Trixie replied.
Damon nodded and rose his staff into the air and with a loud grunt, slammed it into the earth making a white flash. Trixie watched in awe as beam of black light shot up into the sky before falling into a large dome around them. Despite it being completely black, there was artificial light inside the dome.
Damon grinned, “Okay… now we can fight.”
Kalanar stood in the town, watching the dome as it was formed over the monster and bit his lip. He had since returned to his normal form and returned to the town, standing still in his armor ready to come in should Damon need help.
“Mister Kalanar?”
Kalanar looked down to see Pinchy looking up at him with a look of worry on her face, “Yes, little one?”
“Will Uncle Bones be okay?” she asked.
Kalanar sighed and looked to the barrier, “Your ‘Uncle’ is obnoxious, rude, disobedient, idiotic, lazy, to curious of his own good and a bit of a drinker.”
Pinchy lowered her head and her lip wobbled as Berry looked ready to pummel the elf along with the others. Kalanar then dropped to one knee and lifted her chin up, smiling into her teary eyes.
“And he is the finest student and greatest friend I have ever had the pleasure of knowing, Damon will be fine, little one. I promise.”
Pinchy smiled along with the others as Kalanar wiped away the water from her eyes before he stood up and looked back to the barrier with a slight look of concern on his face.
At least… I pray he will be…
“If we ever survive this, Trixie will kill you herself!”
“Oh stop complaining, I’m working on it!”
Damon rolled out of the way as another tendril slammed into the ground where he had just been. He was clutching Trixie tightly in his left arm whilst wielding his staff in his right. He pointed it at the monster making several boulders rip out of the earth behind him and slam into the monster causing it to roar before blasting at Damon with its lightning eyes.
He cursed as he narrowly avoided being fried and started to run, erecting walls of earth to try and deflect the bolts of lighting away from him. Each time the bolts connected with the walls, dirt and earth flew everywhere. By now, the lightning had caused several fires to erupt from the trees as the lightning struck them, making the area fill with smoke.
Trixie coughed as she clung tighter to his arm, “D-Damon, we need t-to get out of here!”
“I know, Trix. I know!” Damon grunted as he twirled the staff and shot a cone of fire at the monster.
“Stop using fire!” Trixie shouted. “You’ll make it worse—”
She was interrupted as an explosion by Damon’s foot form the lightning bolts sent him and her flying into the air with a cry of pain, Trixie slammed into the ground and rolled, wincing as she lay there. Trixie looked up slowly to see Damon a fair distance away and her eyes widened with alarm then realisation.
“The bonds broken…”
Trixie then gasped as the monster made its way to the still motionless body of Damon and its eyes began to glow.
“NO!” Trixie screamed and vanished.
Damon groaned as he groggily rolled over and looked up, only to see the monster looming over head and charging its attack. Damon tried to move but his body wouldn’t respond, small bolts of electricity dancing off him as he realised he had been paralyzed slightly for the lightning attack.
He gritted his teeth as he looked up at the monster, trying his best to will his body to move when there was a flash of light and Trixie appeared beside him.
“Trix—”
Before he could finished, the monster blasted down at the two and instantly, the unicorns horn shone brightly and a small barrier formed around them. The lightning slammed into the barrier, making her scream in pain as she struggled to keep it steady.
“Y-You will n-not… harm… my… friend!” Trixie screamed at the monster.
Her horn shone brightly and she tried to keep the barrier going, however, the monster was too strong and the barrier shattered. Trixie screamed as the lightning hit her, shocking her entire body.
“NO!” Damon shouted, watching as he body thrown backwards.
He felt the paralysis on his limbs fade and in a second was by Trixie’s smoking body. He carefully lifted her head up and she smiled at him. Daon silently thanked the gods, realising the barrier had taken the vast majority of the attack thus sparing Trixie’s life.
“I… I’m sorry,” Trixie whispered.
“For what, Trix? You saved my life,” Damon replied.
Trixie chuckled softly, “A mistress always looks after her familiar…”
Trixie closed her eyes and Damon lay her down, letting her get some rest. His body started to shake in anger as his eyes started to flicker to red.
“I am sick and tired… of that god… trying to ruin my life!” Damon growled/
His robes slowly turning black and tattered, exposing his robes and other parts of his structure.
“I am going to end this, right. Now!” He growled again.
He looked up at the monster, his bones starting to become greyer and decaying flesh started to appear on them.
“To hell with your abomination, Dorian!” he screamed.
Damon’s whole body began to flow with magic that started to channel from somewhere, his hands shone a bright blue as the ground crackled and lightning danced around him. The air started to warp as small rocks flew into the air around him and into the sky.
Unphased, the monster started to charge up its own attack as Damon stared up at him. His bones covered in decaying flesh, the tattered black robes dancing around as if a powerful wind was blowing them around. Trixie groggily looked up to see Damon and the energy around him, her eyes widened seeing his appearance and a wave of concern flowed over her. Damon turned to look at her briefly before returning his focus on the monster. The concern she had was instantly replaced with fear. Where his green flames once were, were now red. And something inside her told her to be afraid.
“Die.”
His voice was not his own. It came out like a whisper, yet the tone was powerful and ancient. Without having to raise the tone he was able to cause Trixie to choke back a sob of terror. She then screamed as Damon pushed his palms out and a loud bang echoed in the air followed by the loud hum of electricity crackling as a huge beam of lightning shot towards the monster, the whole area being illuminated by the light. The monster fired its own lightning which collided with Damon’s, however, Damon’s kept on going and hit the monster directly in the head, causing it to scream in utter agony as its body was engulfed by the blue lightning, the crackling sound and the smell of burning flesh almost made Trixie pass out.
She watched as Damon kept pouring more and more magic into the monster, electrocuting it entirely. All the while, he never said a word, never showed any expressions and it only served to terrify her more.
Blueblood watched in awe as the black dome suddenly glowed a dim blue, unsure as to what was going on inside of it. Once more, the cameras of the reporters continued to go off around him as what appeared to be the vast majority of Canterlot watched the battle unfold.
Just what in Equestria is going on… he thought, biting his lip in concern.
Kalanar immediately gasped and stepped forwards slightly, watching as the dome glowed a dim blue. Something felt wrong about what was going on inside it, and he didn’t like it one bit.
“Kalanar? Are you alright?” Celestia asked, noticing the look on the elven mage’s face.
“Something doesn't’ seem right…” he whispered.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
He ignored her, he simply watched as the glowing suddenly stopped. Completely confused as to what Damon was doing inside the dome.
"Damon..." Berry whispered with worry, her eyes glistening softly as tears formed in the corners of her eyes. "Please be okay..."
After a few minutes had past, the dome suddenly cracked and crumbled in on itself, revealing no monster. Kalanar quickly took off, running out of the barrier as fast as he could followed by the others.
Damon panted heavily as he stood over the corpse of the monster, his eyes bearing down upon it. his entire frame was shaking slightly as smoke rose from his black robes. Trixie lay a few meters away behind him, her eyes wide and her body shaking in fear. The power she had felt behind his attack had shocked her by the look Damon had given her whilst doing it. It scared her to the core.
His eyes. There was something behind his eyes, something that wasn’t anything she had heard about.
A slowly clapping echoed around them and Trixie turned to see Dorian walking to their right, a somewhat disappointed look on his face.
“Well my boy, you certainly don’t play fair, I ought to—”
Dorian froze mid sentence as Damon slowly turned his head to him and his eyes widened.
“Y-you?! B-but how—”
In an instant, Damon was in front of Dorian. Before the mischief god could respond, Damon grabbed him by the throat and hoisted him into the air before slamming him into the ground, causing a small crater to form. Dorian cried out as he rasped as Damon’s hand slowly tightened on his throat.
“Hello… Dorian…” a soft, male yet powerful whispered voice that echoed around them escaped Damon’s mouth.
“H-How are you—”
Dorian grunted in pain as Damon clenched his hand tighter, “Be quiet, lest I rip your throat out now.”
Trixie shivered in fear, too petrified to move. Never before had she heard a voice so chilling, yet calm and collected, never once raising its voice before. Whatever it was.
It wasn’t Damon.
“I’m feeling merciful today… so I shall let you be on your way. Think of it as, a way to thank you for this body you provided for me…”
Dorian choked as he flailed slightly, “But y-you c-can’t be here! Xerillion trapped you in the dimension plains for what you did!”
“Have you forgotten where my allegiance lies, god of mischief?” Damon chuckled. “He… sent me here.”
Dorian’s eyes went wide as he looked up into the face of Damon. For the first time in countless eons.
He was terrified.
“N-no…”
“But rest assured… I’m still adjusting to this realm again, you’re demise will come. Along with this world… now, sleep...”
“No! You won’t… destroy… Equestria…” he croaked.
Dorian tried to teleport away by his eyelids fluttered as a feeling of extreme exhaustion came over him and her went limp. Damon slowly stood up as the mischief god vanished in a flash of light as Damon cast a teleportation spell on him. He turned to look at Trixie who screamed loudly as he started to walk towards her. She tried to run, only to stumble and fall to the ground as a wave of exhaustion hit her and she blacked out.
When Trixie awoke, she looked around groggily, seeing the large barrier still up above them. Her mind was hazy and she had no recollection of what had happened. She heard a groan and saw Damon lying on the ground, his blue robes smoking slightly and she quickly rushed to his side.
“Damon?!” she cried, shaking him gently.
Damon groaned as he sat up and rubbed his skull, “Urgh… what happened?”
“I don’t know… I don’t remember anything,” Trixie replied, looking at the corpse of the monster.
Damon looked as well, blinking as he suddenly realised who he was talking to, “Trix! you’re alive!” he cried and pulled her into a bone crushing hug.
“Yes! Trixie is! Trixie also can’t breath!” Trixie said in between choking.
“Right… sorry,” Damon chuckled letting her go.
Trixie coughed, but smiled and returned the hug, “Thank you as well… you saved my life and everyone in town.”
“Ah t’was nothing,” he smirked and looked up to the barrier, “Barrier’s still up… give me a second...”
Damon muttered under his breath and his hand shone for a brief moment before the barrier suddenly cracked and shattered, the sun bursting in and fully illuminating the area once more. The lich and the unicorn covered their eyes for a brief moment as the barrier completely shattered and vanished. As he was getting up, Trixie gasped and her jaw dropped, staring at the monster’s corpse. Which had now reverted to what it was.
“Damon… you killed… you killed an Ursa Major…” she whispered.
He blinked as he looked at the corpse of the creature, tilting his head as the star patterns on its fur slowly faded away, leaving nothing but the body of a purple ursidae.
“Huh… so that’s what it was… just… like.. Dorian,” Damon muttered before swaying and falling to his side.
“Damon!” Trixie cried in alarm, grunting as she managed to hoist him partially on her back. “Let’s just get back to Ponyville. You’re in no condition to walk.”
“Thanks… Trix…” Damon smiled.
“You’re welcome, familiar,” Trixie tittred, reciving a snort from Damon as he grumbled in complaint.
* Headcanon, the elements can only be used once or twice before wearing out the users due to the sheer amount of power they have.
** When a mage is near depletion, they can use their bound staves/staffs to boost their power for a limited amount of time depending on the gem infused into it.
Kalanar and the others raced down the pathway and came to a pause when they saw Trixie carrying the limp form of Damon on her back. Immediately, panic overtook the elf as he, Berry and Pinchy rushed to Trixie’s side.
“Damon?” Kalanar said. “Can you hear me, boy?”
“Yeah...” Damon croaked. “I’m peachy.”
Kalanar let out a sigh of relief, “Oh thank the gods… I thought I’d lost you, boy.”
As Damon shakily stood up, he heard a little squeal.
“Uncle Bones!”
Pinchy launched herself from her mothers back and tackled him into a tight hug, her eyes shining with glee as she looked up at him with a big grin on her face. Damon groaned in pain when Berry—like her daughter—tackled the lich making him fall onto his backside.
“Don’t ever worry me like that again!” Berry said, her own eyes tearing up slightly. “I was so worried about you!”
“Pain… everywhere,” Damon wailed.
“Oh… grow up,” Trixie smirked.
“Shut it, you—OW!”
Berry bopped Damon’s head and glared at him, “I’m serious, Damon… you scared me.”
Damon sighed and hugged Berry and Pinchy as tight as he could, “I’m sorry, Berry…”
Kalanar and the others smiled at the scene as Damon slowly got up, Berry standing beside him with Pinchy on her back.
“Here,” Kalanar said, handing Damon a vial. “Have the last regen potion.”
Damon nodded as he drank it down and coughed, “Hate that taste so much!”
“I know,” Kalanar chuckled. “Hense why I make you drink it a lot.”
“Thank you, Damon, Kalanar. You saved Ponyville and many others with your act,” Celestia said, bowing her head a little.
“Eh, was nothing,” Damon smirked. “Besides, if it wasn’t for Trix here, I would’ve probably been vaporized.”
Damon nodded to Trixie whose eyes widened when the sudden attention fell on her, “W-what? Trixie?”
“Mhm, you did save my life with that barrier,” he replied, making Trixie beam and her ego soar.
“Well… Trixie is just glad that you and I can—
“Even if it did nearly kill you,” Damon chuckled, interrupting her.
“Hmmph!” Trixie snorted in offense. “Trixie didn’t nearly die. She merely acted that way to allow you to get your act together as Trixie’s familiar and protect her!”
“Don’t. Start. That. Again,” Damon growled a she glared at her.
“Don’t order me about, familiar!” Trixie snapped. “I will make you respect me!”
As Damon squared up to her face and pressed his skull against her and they glared at each other, Berry face hoofed and sighed heavily.
“Well… so much for them being friends it seems…” she said.
“Lets… just get back to town,” Twilight chuckled. “Then we can just calm down and relax for a bit.”
“Oh! Oh! I was going to combine Damon’s welcome party with Mister Kalanar’s, but now, I can combine them into one huge-mega-ultra ‘Welcome to Ponyville and thank you for saving it’ party for tomorrow!” Pinkie shrieked before racing off back to the town at lightning speed.
“How does she move so fast?” Kalanar asked. “Perhaps I should look into it and—”
“No,” Damon, Berry, Pinchy and the elements all said in unison.
Kalanar blinked at them as Damon rested his hand on his Master’s shoulder, “Just… no, Master. Never try to think of the logic that is Pinks.”
Damon gave him a look that showed Kalanar the seriousness of his tone as well as a hint of fear.
“Trust. Me.”
Kalanar simply nodded and shook his head before he started to head back to the town. As the group began to follow him, Pinchy tugged on Damon’s robes.
“Can you carry me, Uncle Bones?”
“Of course, Pinches,” Damon smiled, picking up the little filly.
“Ahem!” Trixie coughed in annoyance. “Forgetting somepony?”
“Hmm?” Damon replied. “Oh right, sorry.”
Trixie closed her eyes and smugly smirked at him, waiting for him to pick her up. After a few seconds of nothing happening, she opened her eyes to see Damon starting to walk away from her, carrying Berry with one arm like a puppy.
“H-Hey!” she squeaked.
Damon snickered, “Relax, I was just teasing.”
He walked back over and scooped Trixie onto his back and she clung to his neck gently.
“Thank you…” she mumbled.
“No problem, gunna stop with this familiar nonsense?” Damon replied.
“I will find a way…” Trixie grumbled.
Damon sighed and shook his head, to tired to bother continuing the argument with her.
Dorian groaned as he sat up and rubbed his neck, “What the devil just happened?”
He stood up and looked around to see where he was as he dusted his clothing down. He was standing in the middle a barren landscape that seemed to go on for endless miles. He scratched his head in confusion as he looked up to the sky.
“How did I get here?” he pondered aloud.
He snapped his fingers and summoned a map into his hand and studied it carefully, “Hmm… so I’m in the badlands… wonder if that old dragon is still around?”
Dorian slowly started to walk in a circle as he tried to figure out what had just happened.
“Okay… let’s go over this properly.”
He snapped his fingers and a large office table appeared in front of him along with several chairs, each one having a clone of Dorian sitting in them albeit in different clothes. One, however, was a dark skinned man with a top hat that had a skull on it.
“Wait, you’re not meant to be here,” Dorian said and clicked his fingers, replacing the man with another clone of himself.
Dorian grinned to himself and pulled a pointer out of his sleeve and tapped a blackboard that suddenly appeared beside him with a large question mark written on it.
“Gentlemen, as you can see… were not in Equestria anymore.”
There was a loud gasp as the Dorian’s whispered to one another in alarm.
“Patience, gentleman, patience. We can get home soon. I, however, do not recall how we got here. So… any ideas?”
The group all sat there and leant back into their chairs and mused over the idea, one of the Dorian’s sipping from a summoning cup that said ‘number 1 mischief god’ that he had stolen from another mischief god who wore horns on his helmet.
“Anyone?” dorian said impatiently.
“What if…” one of his clones started. “And hear me out on this, okay?”
“Go on…”
“What if…” he started again as the other clones leaned in. “We got attacked by someone? Who sent us here and wiped our memory?”
There was a chilling silence over the table as a wind blew by before all the Dorian clones and the original suddenly burst out laughing.
“Oh by me that was hilarious! Like that ever happened!” Dorian cried in between laughs, his cheeks wet with tears.
The clone huffed and crossed his arms in annoyance before he, the others and the office setting vanished in a puff of blue smoke.
“Screw it, I’ll just ask Discord. He’ll know.”
And with that, Dorian vanished himself in a puff of smoke.
“Wooo, Damon!”
“You kicked that monster’s flank!”
“Go bone man!”
“Hurray for Kalanar!”
Damon rolled his eye flames as he smiled at the crowd of ponies cheering them as they walked back into the town. He heard a sigh escape from his side and saw Trixie looking down at the ground, a little upset. Damon thought for a moment before his flames shone for a moment.
“Huzzuh for Trixie!” a voice cried in the crowd.
Trixie looked up to see the crowd whispering to themselves before they all resumed their cheering once again.
“Alright Trixie!”
“Way to go!”
Trixie smiled up at the crowd and waved her hoof at them, removing herself from Damon’s hold and trotted alongside of him.
“I think she owes you one,” Berry whispered from his other arm.
“What?” Damon asked innocently.
Berry smiled, “I saw your eyes flash, that means you cast a spell. I’m guessing… you threw your voice?”
“Maybe,” Damon smiled. “But… she needed it, she did actually help out and save my life afterall. I’ll let her have this moment.”
“Thank you, thank you. Trixie is most humbled by your applause. Rescuing your town was a synch with the help of my familiar!”
The town let it slide, just ignoring her as Damon sighed and pinched where his noses bridge would have been.
“Even if she still is an annoying pest…”
Berry simply giggled and gave him a soft hug as Pinchy waved from his shoulder at the crowds happily.
“So what do you think, Discord?” Dorian asked as he floated in front of the statute.
“Honestly, I have no idea,” Discord replied. “Are you sure you’re not just winding me up?”
Dorian huffed and crossed his arms, “Of course not! Why would I be winding you up?”
“You’re a sadistic arsehole who once forced my body to literally wind around the tallest spire of Canterlot castle,” Discord replied with a monotonic tone.
“Only because you sent that mutated rabbit after me!” Dorian pouted.
“Hardly a call for wrapping me around a tower!” Discord snapped.
“It was bigger than the bloody castle!” Dorian countered and growled. “I had to use my last holy grenade on the bastard!”
There was a stagnant silence for a brief moment before both the god of mischief and the spirit of chaos burst into fits of laughter, Dorian doubling over and slapping his knee.
“Oh, Discord. You handsome rogue!” he chortled. “Such good times!”
“Indeed,” Discord chuckled. “But in all seriousness, if I may. I don’t know what happened to you… you don’t suppose it could be—”
“No, absolutely not!” Dorian interrupted and glared at Discord. “I made sure to hide the link between Cyrium and Equestria from with the light gods or the dark gods…”
Dorian turned to his head upwards and looked into the sky, sighing softly.
“At least… I think I did…”
“You’re highness! Can you tell us what’s going on?”
“Is it true Equestria is under attack?”
“Is there alien life in Ponyville?”
“What is the word?”
“Is Princess Celestia hiding something from her subjects?”
Blueblood nervously looked over the large crowd of newspaper journalists that were bombarding him with questions regarding the earlier events. News of the battle in Ponyville had spread like wildfire throughout the town of Canterlot. Already, early edition prints of newspapers had the front cover plastered with images and questions regarding the monster and the two beings that were attacking it.
The worst part, neither Celestia or Luna had returned yet, leaving Blueblood to deal with the press.
He looked to his guard to his left, a lunar mare who gave him a sympathetic smile of reassurance and he swallowed the lump in his throat before turning to the crowd again.
“Your highness?”
“Is there any threat to our way of life?”
“Calm yourselves, please,” Blueblood began.
The crowd died down as the prince let out a deep breath, Okay… you can do this, stall them until they get back.
“Yes, you there,” Blueblood said, pointing a hoof at a crowd member.
“Ink Splat, The Canterlot Times. Is Equestria under a threat?”
“As far as we know, Equestria is not under a threat of any kind,” he started. “For all intents and purposes, the monster has been defeated and I am confident it was the work of our lovely monarchs, Celestia and Luna.”
“But what about the strange forms?” one newspony asked.
“I’m sure that was something my dear aunt Luna created as an illusion in order to fight the creature, tell me. Has anypony actually seen my aunts in battle?”
There was a murmur in the crowd as no one could answer, given the last true battle Celestia and Luna had taken part in was over a thousand years ago during the nightmare moon escapade. And since then, the only skirmishes that had happened were usually resolved with diplomacy rather than violence.
“Exactly, so I wholeheartedly believe that the entire battle was fought by my aunts. Using a variety of tactics. However, I cannot comment any further until they return from dealing with the matter, so please refrain from those types of questions.”
As the crowd began to bombard him with questions once again, he pointed his hoof at one of the members.
“Scribble Quill, Canterlot Express. Are the Princesses hiding anything from us?”
Blueblood swallowed a little bit, “I assure you, if there was anything wrong. Celestia and Luna would notify the subjects immediately, it is unlike them to hide anything from public eye.”
“But what about Nightmare Moon? Princess Celestia hid the fact she was actually her sister, Princess Luna!” a voice cried out.
The crowd murmured in agreement as the cameras kept flashing.
“Ah, but she did not. Had any of you looked into our past, you would’ve noticed the connection. Twilight Sparkle did, which is why she was able to restore our beloved ruler of the night to us.”
The crowd murmured again in agreement, realising that they could have read about the connection between Nightmare Moon and Luna.
“But what about the strange creature that Princess Luna was attacking a month ago? We still have not received an answer for that!” another voice said.
“As far as I am aware, that matter has been dealt with. Luna summoned a failed experiment from a tome which escaped and tried to run amok. My aunt… may have overreacted in dealing with it.”
There was a murmur in the crowd of mixed views on how she dealt with it.
“But rest assured, it has been dealt with. Now, if any of you fine journalists have any other questions, I please ask that you patiently await for the return of my two aunts. Thank you.”
Blueblood was assaulted by more lights flashing and more questions as he stepped from his podium and made his way back into the palace followed by the two guards. Once inside he let out a huge sigh of relief and shook his head.
“Animals, the lot of them,” he grumbled.
“I-I think you did well, sire,” the bat mare smiled with a light blush.
Blueblood turned to her and blinked before smiling nervously back at her with a light blush of his own, “O-oh well uh, thank you…?”
“Moon Dancer, sir.”
“Thank you, Moon Dancer,” Blueblood smiled. “Could you deliver an urgent scroll to my aunts? They need to know that the public need answers, answers I can’t give them.”
“Of course, your highness!” Moon Dancer beamed before taking off.
“And you?” Blueblood asked the solar stallion with him.
“Silver Blade, sire.”
“You may return to your duties, I’ll be in my room if I’m needed.”
“Of course, sire.”
Blueblood watched the stallion trot off before releasing a final sigh and heading to his room.
As everyone chatted away in Sugarcube corner, Celestia sighed, taking a seat and closed her eyes, letting her thoughts drift. She felt the spot beside her be sat in and opened her eye to see Kalanar sitting beside her.
“Everything alright, your majesty?” he asked.
Celestia smiled, “Kalanar, you are a friend of mine. Please just call me Celestia.”
“Very well, Miss Celestia,” the elf replied.
“You’re not going to address me like I want you to, even if I ordered it. Are you?” Celestia asked, raising her eyebrow.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Miss Celestia,” Kalanar smiled.
Celestia just shook her head and tittered as the elf chuckled.
“But back to my question, everything alright?”
Celestia sighed, “To a degree… we’re coming up to the hard part about yours and Damon’s arrival.”
“Which is?”
“Introducing you to our ponies, well, the rest of them. So far, only rumors of Damon have surfaced whilst there is little of you as you haven’t been here as long. The plan was to introduce him at the Grand Galloping Gala that is to take place in a couple of days time.”
Kalanar nodded as she continued.
“Now, I’m just hoping everything will go according to plan. Given today’s incidents,” Celestia finished.
Kalanar smiled and gave her a reassuring pat on the back, “I give you my word, me and my student will give our best impressions to the public. You won’t have to worry about a single thing, your highness.”
Celestia smiled back and the elf, “Thank you, Kalanar.”
The bell to the shop opened and a batmare walked in, wearing the armor of Luna. To say Princess Celestia hadn’t already anticipated what the consequences of Dorian’s little punishment were was an understatement. So when the lunar mare entered sugarcube corner with a scroll in her pouch carrying Blueblood’s personal seal, she was ready.
“Your highness?” Moon Dancer saluted. “I have an urgent message from your nephew.”
“Thank you, Moon Dancer,” Celestia replied, levitating the scroll over to her. “Please help yourself to a drink and something to eat before you return to Canterlot.”
“Thank you,” Moon smiled before trotting over to the counter.
Celestia opened the scroll carefully read the contents. With a heavy sigh, she rolled the parchment up and made it vanish before turning to Moon Dance.
“Please inform my nephew that me and Luna—”
“Sister, perhaps I should return? Give Blueblood some reassurance if he needs it?” Luna said, interrupting her.
“Okay, Lulu. Thank you,” Celestia smiled. “Moon Dancer, please escort my sister home. And please inform the press that there will be a formal conference first thing tomorrow morning.”
“Right away, your highness,” Moon Dancer replied with a salute. “I’ll—
The mare stopped mid sentence as they looked back over at the others who were all watching Trixie argue with Damon. Again. Suddenly, Pinkie Pie appeared from behind the counter, pushing a large trolley with a larger than average hamper on it.
“I have an idea! Let’s all go to the park and have a picnic to celebrate!”
Luna turned to her sister and pouted, making Celestia giggle.
“I think we can stay for a bit longer, don’t you Lulu?”
Luna grinned as she escorted Pinkie and the hampers, followed by the rest of the group. Celestia looked over at Moon Dancer and smiled.
“Won’t you join us?” she asked.
“I’d love to… but I kind of want to get back to Prince Blueblood…” the mare looked away to hide her light blush, making Celestia hold back a titter.
“Oh, I see. I wouldn’t want to keep you waiting then. Safe travel,” the alicorn said.
Moon Dancer saluted her with a smile, “Thank you, your highness.”
As the bat mare exited the shop, Celestia giggled, “Enjoy your ‘date’.”
The mare said nothing, instead, taking off as quickly as she could and hiding her blush. The sun alicorn giggled as she exited the shop and trotted quickly to the others as they headed towards the town park.
Celestia sighed in contentment as she lay on the grass beside Luna, levitating a cup of tea to her lips and taking a long sip..Luna smiled and sipped from her own cup, closing her eyes and enjoying the light summer breeze. Kalanar sat cross legged in between the two siblings, watching the festivities in front of them with a warm smile from the rim of the book he was reading. The elements, Damon, Berry, Pinchy, Colgate, Trixie and the cutie mark crusaders were tossing a frisbee between them.
“Go long!” Applejack cried.
The earth pony picked the disc of the ground with her teeth and craned her head back and grunted as she tossed it into the air, watching it sail over towards Fluttershy. The mare squeaked and hid behind her mane as the dsic whizzed towards her. At the last second, Rainbow Dash swooped down and scooped up the disc before flinging it away, smirking to herself as it curved low before curving up in a crescent pattern.
Damon smirked before looking at Berry by his side, who was watching the frisbee shot towards them, “Grab it, Berry!”
Before Berry could say anything, Damon grabbed her and flung her up into the air, making the amre screech in surprise. Just as it was about to hit her, Berry grabbed the frisbee in a split second reaction and fell into Damon’s arms.
“Nice one! Okay, now—OW!”
Damon cringed as Berry smacked the back of his head with the frisbee and scowled at him, “Don’t. Do. That!”
“Point taken,” Damon chuckled, rubbing his skull.
“Mummy! Throw it to me!” Pinchy called, sitting on top of Trixie’s head.
Trixie kept her eyes looking up, biting her lip as she tried her best to keep Pinchy balanced on her head lest she face the wrath of the mother. The mare internally cursed Damon after he suggested making amends with Berry, further suggesting doing whatever Pinchy wanted to do after she had lost the argument in Sugarcube corner.
The mare didn’t like being reduced to a glorified perch for a filly.
Still, she let it slide. The days events were… more than anything she had ever experienced and right now, she just wanted to relax and she had to admit. The game of frisbee was relaxing her, despite the filly on her head.
Berry giggled as she craned her head back and snapped it forwards to throw the frisbee, only to not let go in time and throw the frisbee into Damon’s face. The lich yelped in alarm and fell on his back.
“Damon! Are you okay?” Berry asked in concern.
Damon groaned as he sat up and rubbed his skull, “Okay. Now, we’re even.”
The mare giggled as the frisbee had a light blue aura surround it and Colgate smirked at her.
“You are useless at throwing these, you know that right?” the unicorn smirked.
Berry rolled her eyes and playfully pushed her side, “Shush, it’s easier for a unicorn.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Colgate giggled as she gently shot the frisbee towards Pinchy.
Damon watched with curiosity as Berry smiled at Colgate, and smirked to himself mischievously. Pinchy leapt up and caught the frisbee with a giggle, making Trixie squeak as she caught the filly in her magic and let out a sigh of relief.
“Who should we pass it to, Miss Trixie?” the filly asked.
Trixie sniffed, “Trixie doesn't mind.”
“Oh! Oh!” Pinkie cried, jumping up and down. “Me! Me!”
Pinchy giggled and with a small grunt tossed the frisbee, albeit secretly assisted by Trixie’s magic towards the pink mare.
Twilight looked over at her mentor and the other two and swallowed nervously, before sighing and making her way over to them.
“Hello, Miss Twilight,” Kalanar started looking up from his book. “Something wrong?”
“Oh, nothing. I just thought I’d join you, I mean… if that’s okay with you?” Twilight smiled sheepishly.
“Why would it not be?” the mage smiled, patting the ground beside him.
Celestia watched with an intrigued smirk as Twilight grinned wide and nearly ran up to Kalanar, settling down beside the elf and Celestia.
“So… reading anything interesting?” the unicorn asked.
“It’s a book on the life of this, ‘Starswirl The Bearded’. Sounds like he was a very powerful and wise unicorn.”
Twilight’s smile threatened to tear her face apart, “I know! He’s like, the greatest magic user ever! I doubt anypony could rival his power other than him.”
“What about me?” Celestia asked with a teasing smile, “I thought I was fairly powerful.”
Twilight’s eyes shrank and she chuckled nervously, “U-uh, aside from you, Princess…”
“And what about me?” Luna asked with a mock frown, “I thought I too was fairly powerful!”
“U-uh, I meant that he was the greatest unicorn ever?” Twilight said as she shrank down nervously.
Celestia and Luna started to giggle madly as Celestia gently rested a wing over Twilight, “Relax, my dear student. We’re merely teasing.”
“Oh…” Twilight replied, blushing softly.
“From what I’ve read, you are correct, Miss Twilight. He is indeed powerful,” Kalanar said as he turned a page.
Twilight beamed and opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by Kalanar.
“But from what I can sense about you, and from what Celestia has told me. You are going to exceed him, ten fold.”
Twilight looked up at the elf, “You… you really think that?”
“I know that,” Kalanar smiled down, giving the unicorn a gently pat on her head.
Twilight blushed and looked away, trying not to giggle to herself and smiled happily, scootching a little closer to the elf. Kalanar, oblivious to it, went back to reading his book with a smile. Celestia looked up to Luna and they both shared a knowing smirk about Twilight.
“Kalanar?” Celestia asked. “Would you be willing to do me a favor...?”
The large imposing ruined castle of the two sisters was quiet, save for the gentle sound of the wind blowing through many of the ruine tunnels and hallways. Suddenly, in the centre, a large flash of light illuminated the area and Dorian appeared in the middle of the old entrance hall.
“Right…” he muttered, looking around. “Time to get some answers...”
He started to walk towards the staircase in front of him that once was were the sisters would greet their subjects at events and social gatherings, deciding to reveal in old memories and savor the walk rather than just teleport to where he was going. The mischief god closed his eyes and smiled, fondly remembering the days of old. How he and Discord would get up to pranks and generally annoying the populace, right up until he dared Discord to prove chaos was stronger than mischief.
Then everything kind of went downhill.
He sighed and shook his head as he ascended the staircase, looking up at the large tattered banner that was emblazoned with thee sun and moon emblems. He studied it for some time before taking a left and walking up another smaller flight of stairs and wandering down the dark corridors, the only light coming from the sun through cracks in the roof as it hung over the sky.
As he continued to make his way through the halls, he would occasionally look left and right, re-imagining the days when the castle was in its splendor. Dorian caught himself sighing more than once and came to a stop at one point, rubbing his head as he looked up at the ceiling and frowned.
“I hate feeling like this… why couldn’t things be like they used to be? It was more... fun back then.”
With a shake of his head, he carried on walking down the lonely hallways, his hand in his pocket and the other summoning his cane that made a soft tap as it connected each time to the ground.
Dorian made his way to a large imposing wooden door that when he opened, revealed a long and darkened staircase that descended into the lower regions of the castle. Wasting no time, he started his descent, his shoes and cane echoing as they came into contact with the stone floor. As it started to darken, Dorian snapped his fingers and a small glowing orb of light materialized beside him, illuminating the area. Nodding to himself, he continued his descent further into the darkness of the lower regions.
After what seemed like a long time, he came to another large wooden door, one that was more decayed than the previous. With a careful push of his cane, the large door groaned as it creaked open, revealing a pitch black room. Dorian nodded to the orb and it floated inside, before expanding out and exploding into hundreds of mini-orbs, each one fully illuminating the room.
Dorian stepped in and wasted no time walking straight to the centre where a large crystal orb stood. An orb he knew all too well. As he ran his hand over the orb, it shone brightly and he smiled.
“Hello, Starswirl. It’s been a while,” he spoke to the orb that slowly created an image of a white unicorn.
A cough came from the orb followed by an annoyed grunt, “Who in the blue blazes is disturbing me?”
“It’s me… Dorian?” the god replied, tilting his head.
“Dorian? You don’t look like him,” Starswirl said. “The Dorian I knew looked like a rejected scarecrow.”
Dorian rolled his eyes before tapping his cane into the ground and his appearance changed dramatically. His skin turned black and his eyes became completely pure white. His hair drooped to his neck and spiked out at the bottom, changing into streaks of black and white the same as his eyes and skin. The colour of his trousers matched his skin and became baggier, his shoes disappearing and replacing themselves with white socks whose colour rivaled his eyes. His waist coat disappeared, leaving a pure white shirt and with a black collar, black spots running down the right arm and stripes down the left. Dorian’s tie loosened itself and dangled down from his neck, changing colours to black and white striped. The cane in his hand warped until it was black with white stripes, the pattern changing to zig-zags as the top with spots before stopping at the white head.
A black mask appeared over his face, the mouth of it taking the appearance of a white, double ‘M’. Two white dots appearing where the eyes would be. a series of small dots twirled around the left eye and towards the forehead of the mask where it met two white swirls.
Finally, a big, pointy hat plopped onto Dorian’s head. the rim was white, covered in black dots whilst a black and white stripe pattern ran up towards the point, with three white circles on the lowest circle.
The parts of his outfit there were black were so dark, that, had Dorian stood in shadows. Those parts of his body would be invisible, blending in perfectly to the shadows. And the whites of his outfit were so bright, they cast no shadows of themselves, causing the form of the mischief god to look out of place with anything else.
Dorian floated in the air softly as he looked at the orb, the mask’s mouth twisting into a smirk.
“Now, do you remember?” he asked.
Starswirl’s eyes went wide, recognising the form he had known all those years ago. And broke into a wide grin, “Ah, Dorian! And I see Lord Topenhat is with you.”
The hat, lord Topenhat, on Dorian’s head grunted in response, a yawn escaping it.
“Hello, old friend,” Dorian chuckled before he sighed and sat cross-legged in the air in front of the orb. “I need your advice…”
Twilight bit her lip as she paced back and forth in the library, her mane askew and her fur grimy. It was the day of the Gala, and she had been a nervous wreck. Spike came down the stairs and yawned, rubbing his eyes gently. He stopped when he came to the bottom of the stairs and watched her with a frown.
“Twilight… did you stay up all night, again?”
Twilight didn’t answer him, she merely muttered to herself as she kept pacing.
“Twilight, I think you need to at least have a bath and maybe rest for a few hours. You look—
Twilight stopped and snapped her head at the dragon who gulped softly, “How can you even suggest that?! The gala is this evening and I don’t know what I’m going to do about my date! Do I talk about myself? Do I talk about him? None of the books really helped! Do I—”
Spike rolled his eyes, “I doubt he would care what you do, as long as you two have fun together.”
“You’re right, Spike,” Twilight sighed, “I’m just nervous, this is the first date I’ve been on since I was in school. And the Princess is counting on me to not only make sure he has a good time at the Gala, but assist him with the nobles of Canterlot.”
“I know, Twilight,” Spike replied. “But you need to make sure you look okay first, and no offense, Twilight. You look a mess.”
Twilight was about to protest but caught sight of herself in the mirror hanging on the wall and cringed, “Yeah… I do look a bit… off.”
Spike raised his brow as a knock on the door caught their attention.
“I’ll get it,” Spike said.
Twilight sighed as Spike walked to the door. The princess’ request still spinning in her mind, two days after he had been asked.
“Kalanar?” Celestia asked. “Would you be willing to do me a favor...?”
“What’s that, Miss Celestia?” the elf replied.
“I was wondering if you would be willing to take my dear student with you to the Gala,” she said before pausing, watching Twilight’s eyes widen and her cheeks redden. “As your plus one.”
“My plus one?” he asked, to which the alicorn nodded. “I’d be delighted, if Miss Twilight would that.”
“I-I’d like that,” the unicorn stuttered and smiled nervously at the elf.
“Then it’s settled,” Celestia grinned to Luna. “It’s a date.”
“Very good,” Kalanar smiled. “Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to return to the library. Good day, Miss Celestia, Miss Luna. I will see you back at the library later, Miss Twilight.”
Luna and Celestia nodded as Kalanar vanished in a sudden flash. No sooner had her left, Twilight started to jump around the two alicorn’s in absolute glee.
“YESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYES!” Twilight all but shouted before coming to a screeching halt, noticing everyone had since walked over to the trio and were looking at her with amused expressions.
“What’s gotten into ya, Twi?” Applejack asked.
“U-uh, nothing?” Twilight sheepishly grinned.
Applejack simply raised her eyebrow as the unicorn’s ears lowered, struggling to keep her poker face.
“Oh, it’s nothing, Applejack,” Luna explained. “Twilight here is merely expressing her joy about her ‘date’ for the Gala.”
“You have a date?” Rarity gasped, her eyes widening as a grin formed on her lips.
“W-well, uh, sorta?” Twilight replied.
“Who is it?”
Twilight mumbled her answer as her friends leaned in closer.
“Uhm… what was that?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“She’s going to be escorted by Kalanar to the Gala, Rainbow Dash,” Celestia replied with a smirk as Twilight covered her face in embarrassment.
Rarity and Applejack looked to one another and smirked before Rarity tittered, “I knew it. I can always tell when somepony has a crush on somepony else.”
“Y-you knew about my crush?!” Twilight spluttered.
Rarity giggled, “Well, I actually wasn’t one hundred percent sure. But thank you for confirming it.”
Twilight blushed and grumbled as Rarity suddenly appeared by her side.
“Now come along, dear. We have work to do!”
Before Twilight could reply, she was whisked away by the white unicorn.
Twilight sighed happily as she let her mind wonder. She was so lost in her thoughts she didn’t hear Spike walk back.
“Still not sure what you see in him though, Twilight,” Spike said. “I mean, you hardly know him.”
Twilight sighed happily again, not hearing the dragon. Spike poked her and she blinked a couple of times.
“Huh? Wah?”
“I said, I’m still not sure what you see in him. You barely know him,” Spike repeated.
“I could say the same thing to you about your crush on Rarity,” Twilight replied. “You didn’t know her more than a second before you fell for her.”
Spike’s eyes widened and made cutting motions across his throat as the unicorn in question walked in, levitating a dress behind her.
“What are we discussing?” Rarity asked as she examined the dress, not yet looking at Twilight.
“N-nothing!” Spike said with a nervous smile.
Twilight smirked in triumph as the dragon glared at her, leaving the two mares alone in order to get something to snack on.
“So, Twilight. Looking forward to this— Goodness me!” Rarity gasped, seeing the state Twilight was in. “Why you look like you haven’t slept properly!”
“I… kinda didn’t much,” Twilight admitted.
Rarity tutted as she sorted out the unicorn’s mane, “This won’t do, Twilight. Don’t you want to make a good impression for your date this evening?”
Twilight blushed lightly and nodded. Rarity giggled and smiled softly, levitating a brush from the nearby table.
“Then let’s begin!”
Damon yawned as he leant back into the sofa, a smile of contentment on his face as he patted his stomach. Pinchy curled up beside him, snuggling as close as she could to the lich and yawned as well, closing her eyes and settling in.
“That was a good lunch…” Damon murmured. “Compliments to the chef.”
“Thanks,” Colgate smiled as she took a seat adjacent to the sofa. “Nopony can resist my pasta bake!”
Berry giggled as she entered the living room where they were and took the seat next to Colgate, “How come I never get complimented, hmm?”
“Because Colgate is a guest cooking for us?” Damon shrugged. “Besides, you know I love your cooking, Berry.”
“Uhuh,” Berry replied with a smirk.
Kalanar then entered, sitting on the sofa beside Damon and Pinchy, “There, that enchantment will clean the dishes for you, Miss Berry.”
“Thank you, Kalanar,” Berry replied before looking at Damon. “How come you never do that?”
“You never ask,” Damon replied.
Kalanar shook his head and gave the back of Damon’s head a smack as Pinchy giggled and yawned again.
“Tired, Pinches?” Damon asked.
“A lil…” she murmured.
“Let her sleep,” Berry said. “She needs to get some sleep before the Gala tonight.”
“Want me to put her to bed?” Colgate asked, turning her head to the other mare.
“Please,” Berry smiled.
Colgate smiled back and trotted over to the now sleeping Pinchy and levitated her carefully onto her back where the filly instinctively snuggled into the mare’s neck with a soft sigh.
The three watched as Colgate took Pinchy out of the room and up the stairs before Berry smiled at Kalanar.
“So, looking forward to this evening?” she asked.
“Of course,” Kalanar replied. “We’ll finally be able to reveal ourselves to the public and interact fully with pony society. I’m certain it will go off without a hitch.”
Berry blinked at the mage, “Actually… I was referring to you and Twilight.”
“Hmm? Oh, that. Why I’m looking forward to it, perhaps Miss Twilight would be delighted if she and I visited the royal archives.”
Berry slapped her forehoof, shaking her head as the elf missed her point again.
“If you will excuse me, I have some errands to run. Good day, Miss Berry. Please tell Miss Colgate I said farewell and I thank her again for an excellent meal. I’ll see you later, Damon.”
Berry was about to speak but Kalanar quickly teleported, leaving the two alone. She sighed and looked at Damon.
“For a wise master of the arcane, he isn’t that bright. Is he?”
“It’s like I said the other day,” Damon yawned. “He’s useless at love.”
Berry let her mind wander back a couple of days prior, when princess Celestia confirmed about Kalanar escorting Twilight to the Gala.
The group watched Twilight get whisked away by Rarity, unable to resist snickering at her predicament before they all decided to call it a day.
“We should be heading back to Canterlot now, we look forward to seeing you all at the Gala,” Celestia said with a smile.
“It shall be most entertaining,” Luna added.
The group said their goodbyes and watched as the alicorn sisters took to the skies towards Canterlot before saying their farewells to one another. As Berry, Colgate, Pinchy and Damon made their way back to Berry’s home, the mare turned her head to look at the lich.
“Damon… is Kalanar aware of Twilight’s crush, right?” she asked.
Damon snorted, “I doubt it, the old fart is useless when it comes to love and what have you.”
Berry rolled her eyes, “The Gala’s going to be entertaining.”
“You got that right,” Colgate added.
Unbeknownst to the two mares, Pinchy was whispering to Damon as the two cackled quietly concocting a devious plan.
As Berry came out of her train of thoughts, Colgate returned downstairs and looked around.
“Kalanar gone then?” she asked.
“Mhm, he said to say goodbye and thank you for the meal,” Berry replied.
Colgate smiled and sat on the chair beside Berry again before looking up at Damon.
“So, why didn’t Trixie join us for lunch again?” she asked.
Damon shook his head, “The mare’s been in her carriage all day preparing herself for this evening. Practising her tricks and what have you as well as sorting her wardrobe out, honestly, women… we’ll see her at the library later on.”
Damon ignored the look Berry gave him and leant back, looking at the two mares side by side. He smirked and stood up, stretching his back and cracking it as he bent back slightly.
“You two can have the sofa, more room to relax on it,” he said.
“Alright, thanks,” Colgate smiled and hopped off, trotting over to the sofa as she took a seat.
Berry, however, eyed the lich with a suspicious look before she slowly got off and joined Colgate. Damon smiled innocently as he took a seat and twirled his hand, producing a book which he started to read. Colgate yawned softly and smacked her lips.
“Berry, you mind if I take a quick nap? I don’t wanna go home ‘cos I’m comfy,” the unicorn said as she put on her best puppy dog eyes at the other mare.
Berry giggled and booped her nose, “I already told you, you’re always welcome here and this is your second home.”
“I know, I just like it when you boop my nose,” Colgate said before sticking her tongue out.
Berry blushed softly and smile, before catching Damon’s grin and scowled at him. Damon snickered to himself softly and went back to reading his book.
“What are you up to, bone boy?” Berry asked.
“Who, me?” Damon asked with a mock gasp. “Absolutely nothing!”
“Uhuh,” Berry replied, unamused. “Why do I get a bad feeling when you say that?”
Colgate giggled, nuzzling Berry’s cheek playfully, “You worry too much, Berry. Just look forward to tonight, you, me and Pinchy at the Gala. Just imagine it!”
“Yeah…” Berry replied with a dreamy smile. “It’s hard to imagine we’re even going.”
“You’re welcome,” Damon smirked. “I believe it’s thanks to me you can even go at—”
Berry interrupted him with a pillow to his face, rolling her eyes with a soft giggle, “Just don’t embarrass yourself, okay?”
“Yes, mother,” Damon replied with a grumble.
“It’s more or less so Kalanar doesn't beat your backside again with his ‘disciplining’,” Colgate added with a smirk.
“Hey, in my defence—” Damon started.
“Well, he doesn't really have a backside, I don’t think he does anyway. Bones and all that,” Berry interrupted.
“Yeah, but—”
“Good point,” Berry replied before smirking and turning to Damon. “Did you ask anyone to go with you to the Gala?”
“Well no, but—”
Colgate interrupted with a knowing grin, “That’s because you got nobody to go with.
There was a long silence as the three looked at each other. Berry blinked and looked to colgate who was struggling not to laugh, but upon seeing Berry’s face, both mares burst into fits of giggles as Damon glared at them.
“You know, I could take these bone jokes as racism,” he grumbled.
“Oh lighten up,” Colgate teased, sticking her tongue out.
Damon grumbled but chuckled anyway and shook his head, “Yeah, yeah. I’m gunna go take a walk, I’ll see you guys later, okay?”
“Okay, Damon,” Berry replied.
“Later,” Colgate added.
Damon walked out of the room and then the home, closing the door behind him. As he started walking, a mischievous grin formed on his face.
“Operation love birds is a-go…” he cackled to himself, glancing back at the home one last time.
The library was full of chatter, everyone gathered in the main room all dressed and ready for the Gala. All the girls were dressed up in their dresses, with Rarity’s and Twilight’s being the most extravagant. The latter due to Rarity wanting Twilight to succeed. Trixie, who had finally shown up after spending the entire day getting ready in her carriage, was nattering away to Pinkie who simply stood there, taking in what the showmare was saying but not processing it.
Spike was sitting on the sofa reading a comic, wearing a small tuxedo and a large hat on his head. Beside him were Pinchy and the cutie mark crusaders, the latter had also been invited along to the Gala. Sweetie Belle was sitting as close as she could get to the drake, a shy smile on her face. Scootaloo, Applebloom and Pinchy resisted the best they could to call out the fillies obvious ploy.
The chattering came to a stop as they heard footsteps coming from the stairway and looked over to see Damon and Kalanar descending the stairs. Both Damon and Kalanar sporting the outfits Rarity had designed for them.
***Damon was wearing a dark blue shirt that poofed out slightly at the arms, tucking into elbow length brown gloves. He wore a pair of dark trousers that tucked into brown, knee high boots. A large belt fitted with a solid gold buckle wrapped around his waist and a dark blue cloak that covered his right arm and dangled to his waist, attached with his brooch. Atop his head, was a large black hat with a large white feather dangling from it. Damon had cast a simple enchantment on his robes to make it appear as if he still had skin, in order to make the clothes look more fitting on his person.
Kalanar was wearing an extravagant looking white shirt that also poofed out at the arms with a dark red cravat. He, like Damon, was also wearing elbow length brown gloves that the shirt tucked into. Covering one of his shoulders was a crimson cloak, like Damon’s, came to an end at his waist, his broach holding it in place. Like Damon, he wore black trousers with a large gold belt buckle that tucked into knee high brown boots and a similar hat rested atop his head.
Twilight’s jaw nearly dropped as the elf smiled at her, her cheeks turning a soft shade of red.
“I feel silly,” Damon grumbled as he tugged at his shirt, only to have Rarity smack his hand away.
“Nonsense, darling. You both look simply handsome,” Rarity smiled.
“Sure I do,” Damon grumbled sarcastically.
“Trixie thinks you look acceptable,” the showmare sniffed.
Kalanar walked over to Twilight who was still gawking at him, “Are you alright, Miss Twilight? Your cheeks are a little red.”
Damon smacked his face as the others resisted the urge to do so.
“I’m f-fine,” she managed to say. “Just a little nervous.”
“There’s no need,” he said reassuringly. “We’ll have a fantastic time.”
A knock on the door caught their attention. Spike clambered down and opened it, revealing a stallion in royal armor and a large chariot behind him.
“On the request of her majesty, we have arrived to escort you to the Gala,” he said.
“Then let’s not keep her waiting!” Damon grinned, picking up Pinchy in her little dress and plonking her on his head. “Let’s party!”
Before anyone could stop them, Damon rushed out followed closely by Pinkie and jumped into the carriage.
“That boy…” Kalanar sighed as the group exited the library for the carriage.
As the carriage landed, everyone looked outside to see the palace lit up. The excited chatter starting up once more as they all exited the carriage. They had landed away from where everyone else was due to arrive so Celestia and Luna could keep Damon and Kalanar hidden until they were ready to announce their arrival.
“Wow! The palace is huuuuuuge!” Pinchy cried from atop Damon’s hat.
“It sure is, Pinches. And I have bad, bad memories of this place…” Damon replied.
“If you’re referring to your arrival, that was your own fault,” Kalanar chuckled. “It could have gone smoother had you fallen into your negotiation skills I taught you.”
The girls giggled as Damon grumbled and waved him off with a gloves hand, “Yeah, yeah. Let’s just get inside shall we?”
“Tonight’s going to be the best, night, EVER!” Pinkie squealed.
“Of course it will!” Damon grinned. “What could possible go wrong?”
In the gardens, away from all the excitement and partying, a small wind suddenly whipped up. It ducked through the arc of the archway that stood at the entrance around the many statues that dotted the Canterlot gardens, before twirling around the statue that contained Discord. And just as quickly as it appeared, it vanished as it reached the top.
“I’m… not so sure this will go well,” Damon muttered.
“Why?” Kalanar asked.
The two were walking alongside the Elements, Trixie, Berry, Colgate, Pinchy, Spike and a four stallion guard escort through a large hallway to where they were to meet with the Princess’ and Prince.
“Well, think about it. I’m certain that they will react relatively okay towards you, I mean, you still have your flesh, Master. But me, I’m a walking, talking skeleton. Ponyville may have come to accept me after reassurance from the Princess, but… I don’t know. Part of me just thinks no matter what she says, something bad is going to happen regarding me or both of us,” Damon replied.
“I think you’re looking into it a bit too much,” Twilight said, giving him a reassuring smile. “The Princess has this motherly aura about her that will reassure everyone, hay, if you managed to get Blueblood to treat you like an equal, then you’ll be fine.”
“I never did ask about that,” Kalanar replied. “Who is this Blueblood fellow. We never did get a chance to meet.”
“He’s the nephew of Princess Celestia and Luna,” Damon explained. “He seems like an alright guy, but Twi here seems to have a bee in her bonnet about him.”
“Ah’ve been meaning to ask ‘bout that to, Twi,” Applejack said, joining the conversation. “Why do you have such a negative opinion of him? He seemed alright when he met Damon.”
“Yeah, what is that about?” Rainbow added.
“You guys didn’t grow up in Canterlot. And because I was the student of the Princess, I heard—
“It’s because of how he is seen by so many people based off one time seeing him and therefore decide that he has all these negative traits about him like pony superiority, xenophobia and sexism,” Pinkie interrupted with a grin.
Everyone stopped, including the guards, and just stared at Pinkie. The mare tilted her head and blinked in confusion.
“What? That’s how he’s usually written!”
Twilight shook her head, deciding to ignore the pink mare, “No, that’s not exactly it. It’s because… well, you hear things. Like how he treated certain ponies, or how he would act if he didn’t get his way.”
“And did you see any of that happening whilst you lived here?” Berry asked.
“Well… no, but I—”
“Did anyone else see it and tell you?” Colgate added.
“No, but they said—”
“You shouldn’t believe everything you hear, dear,” Rarity interrupted and smiled. “Rumors are more often than not untrue, I should know. I’ve heard my fair share of them in the fashion business.”
Twilight sighed and smiled softly, “You’re right… and in fairness he was alright when he first met Damon.”
“Exactly,” Rarity smiled. “Who knows, you may get along well with him and realise just how silly these rumors are. I know I’m going to get along with him.”
As Rarity giggled and shook her head left and right, fantasising about how her life would be after bagging the Prince. Spike grumbled quietly to himself as the others rolled their eyes at the unicorns filly like giggling, approaching two large doors.
“Please wait here,” one of the guards said, before he and the others opened the door and exited the hallway.
The group waited patiently before the door opened and Princess Celestia, Luna and Prince Blueblood entered the hallway with the guards.
“It’s good to see all to you,” Celestia smiled.
Twilight smiled back as she and the princess shared a gentle nuzzle, “It’s good to see you again as well, Princess.”
“You must be Elder Kalanar,” Blueblood said, looking up at the elf. “It’s good to finally meet you.”
“Indeed I am, your highness. It’s good to meet you as well,” Kalanar replied, bowing forwards.
Blueblood chuckled, “No need to bow, wouldn’t be proper of me to have the ones who stopped that… thing from possibly attacking more innocents.”
Blueblood then fully inspected Kalanar, giving his body a look over and then looked to Damon, “Forgive me if I come off as rude, but. Why aren’t you a skeletal being such as Damon here?”
“Ah, well. In truth, we are two different types of humanoids. I’m an elf, and he is human. However, the idiot got himself caught up in one of our more… annoying deity’s plans and was turned into a lich.”
“Hey, I’m not an idi—” Damon started.
“Yes, yes you are,” Berry interrupted with a deadpan expression. “Since the day we met to the end of our days.”
Damon wanted to protest, but in fairness, his track record wasn’t that good. He crossed his arms and huffed, looking away as Pinchy giggled beside her mother.
“I see…” Blueblood mused. “Perhaps we could discuss more at a later date? I feel as if you’d have more wisdom than Damon,” he said with a playful smirk at the lich.
“Hey!” Damon protested.
Kalanar nodded, resisting the urge to smirk, “I’d be more than happy to at some point.”
“Enough of this chit-chat!” Luna cried with a grin, “We have a party to attend!”
Celestia rolled her eyes and tittered, “Very well. Now, before we go in, this is how it will go.”
Everyone gave Celestia their attention as she nodded to the guards to leave them.
“As all the guests have arrived, Luna and I will announce the start of the Gala and introduce the Elements as one of the two special guests. We will then announce you and Damon, stating you are guests of honor from the realm of Cyrium beyond the Veil Sea.”
“Veil Sea?” Damon asked.
Luna nodded, “It’s the largest ocean on our planet. Not much is actually known beyond its horizon as it is very difficult to traverse, given its weather acts like the Everfree forest but worse. Nopony would question your origins if we state you came from beyond the horizon as ambassadors, at least, that’s the hope.”
“I see, whilst I have my doubts. I’ll go along with it,” Kalanar replied.
Celestia smiled, “Very good. Shall we get started?”
The group nodded as the Princess’ and Prince left, along with Berry, Pinchy and Colgate who left to mingle with the crowd leaving the Elements, Damon and Kalanar behind.
“Nervous?” Dash asked, nudging Damon in the side.
“Hmm? Me? Naah, this will be a breeze,” Damon replied with a cocky grin.
“Just… try not to embarrass me or yourself. Again,” Kalanar sighed.
“Again?” Twilight asked.
“Uh, nevermind. Don’t worry about it!” Damon suddenly said, nervously smiling as he waved his hands dismissively.
The girls looked to one another before a curious, yet mischievous smirk etched on their faces save for Fluttershy who merely smiled.
“Worry about what?” Twilight asked.
“Nothing!” Damon said, ringing his bony hands together in a clear act of panic.
“Well,” Kalanar started, smirking at Damon’s actions. “It began when we were travelling in the Kingdom of Rhunae...”
“Please don’t!” Damon begged.
“We gained an audience with the King himself, and just as he was about to greet us. Damon’s nerves got the best of him and he—”
“Lady Twilight?” A guard interrupted from the open door. “The Princess is about to introduce you and the other Elements.”
“Thank you, come on girls,” Twilight said, a little dejected.
“Darn, I wanted to know what happened,” Applejack grumbled.
Rainbow Dash huffed and nodded, “Yeah, I bet it was something so uncool and totally embarrassing.”
As they watched the elements enter the room and the door close, Damon spun on his heels and glared at Kalanar. Grabbing his shoulders and shaking him in anger.
“You swore you would never speak of that again!”
Kalanar rolled his eyes and smacked the back of Damon’s head, “I wouldn’t have mentioned it, you twit. I was teasing. Remember, that… incident wasn’t particularly good for me either…”
“True…” Damon said, rubbing the back of his head.
The two shuddered and remained in silence for a moment before the door opened again, revealing the guard from before.
“Elder Kalanar? The Princess is about to announce you and Damon.”
“Thank you,” Kalana nodded as he and Damon made their way to the room.
“Well… here we go,” Damon sighed before muttering. “May Varlos watch over us…”
They made their way towards the open door and entered. They walked behind the guard through another hallway, which in the distance they could see Celestia, Luna, Blueblood and the elements standing at the top of some stairs face to their right. The guard motioned them to wait as Celestia noticed them and smiled warmly before turning her attention to the large crowd of noble ponies that eagerly awaited her next words with baited breath.
“Fillies and gentlecolts,” she began. “Many of you have wondered what destroyed the abomination that was spotted the other day, attacking the nearby town of Ponyville.”
The crowd mumbled in agreement, the anticipation growing with every second passing as the princess continued her speech.
“They have traveled to Equestria from beyond the Veil sea in order to make contact with our fair ponies, and I’m pleased to announce, that they are our guests of honor this evening. Would you please show your appreciation of Equestria’s newest allies. The ambassadors of Cyrium, Elder Kalanar and his student, Damon Lipton.”
As she turned her head to nod to the two humanoids, the crowd began to stomp their hooves loudly in applause.
To imagine, there was something beyond the Veil sea. Not to mention, the ones who had defeated what had been called the ‘monster of Ponyville’ had been the two visitors.
As Kalanar started to approach them, Celestia fought back the urge to bit her lip. It was the moment of truth, the moment the alicorn was gambling on, unsure on how her subjects would react.
Kalanar stepped into the light first, cameras flashing left right and centre as he made his way to join the royals. He bowed to the crowd and smiled, waving as Damon followed suite, his hat covering his face. As Damon turned round, the crowd saw him and a loud, collective gasp.
Save for two mares, one earth one unicorn, who were waving at him with a smile and a madly waving unicorn filly who was on top of the earth ponies head.
The cameras kept flashing as Damon blinked at them, looking at his outfit and looking back. He resisted the urge to grin as an idea came to his head, and he couldn’t help himself.
“What? Is there something on my face?” he asked whilst touching his face.
Somewhere in the crowd, a mare gasped and fainted.
Dorian grumbled as he sat on the cliff overlooking the ocean. He had since reverted back to his earlier form the ponies had seen him the day when he brought the corrupted Ursa to Ponyville and had left the castle more annoyed and confused than when he had entered.
“Damn ponies… why are you as stubborn as dwarves?” he grumbled. “Well… guess they could be considered dwarves, being smaller than an average horse…”
He leant back as his mind wandered to the reason for his long sulk.
“Dorian, you can’t just assume people you kidnap will assist you, you know,” Star Swirl sighed.
Dorian pouted as his mask floated beside him, entertaining itself by making faces, “Well, they should! Discord can do it, and—”
“Discord cheats, he always has done and always will,” Star Swirl interrupted. “Just how he cheated at chess back in the day.”
“... True,” Dorian nodded.
“How are you at chess, Dorian? Still awful?” the unicorn smirked.
“Anyway!” Dorian said, throwing his arms up and ignoring the question. “Do you have anything useful to help me or not? Help a pal out.”
Star Swirl sighed and looked away from within the orb, “I’m afraid I don’t. While I don’t particularly condone what you did with this Damon fellow. I don’t know what you and Discord even did to anger Celestia to result him being cast into stone and banishing you back to Cyrium. At first, I thought it was because she blamed you for my… experiment mishap with this orb.”
“I forget, what were you trying to do again?” Dorian asked, tilting his head. “I never did understand that correctly…”
“I was trying to use the orb to see into other realms of existence and the spell backfired, sucking me into the orb and trapping me here,” the old unicorn said with a heavy sigh.
“Ah yeah…” Dorian muttered.
“So… are you going to tell me what this Damon fellow is here for exactly? And why this relates to Discord?”
“Uhm… no,” Dorian replied. “Not yet at least.”
“... You two idiots cocked up massively, didn’t you?” Starswirl deadpanned.
“... Possibly.”
“You’re both idiots,” Star Swirl sighed. “Still, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt for now. As long as you keep my existence hidden from Celestia.”
***Dorian cursed silently as a burning cross formed on his chest where his heart resided.
“I will, I’m a man of my word. Even with that bloody promise curse you made me swear on… I still don’t understand why you don’t want her to know… she isn’t going to be mad at you, every student makes mistakes.” Dorian said softly as he floated around the orb. “Why won’t you just let me ask her for help? I’m sure that she knows a spell to release you.”***
“You don’t get it, Dorian. You aren’t someone’s student.” Star Swirl glared. “I was her top student, the best of the best even better than Time Master himself! The student of the ruler of the sun! I wasn’t allowed to make errors! I need to figure this out for myself, only then will everything be alright.”
“I still think you over reacted a little bit. What would you have done if Clover had made the same error, and you found out via me?” The mischief god asked as he crossed his arms.
“That’s low, Dorian. You damn well know I wouldn’t have been angry at her!” Star Swirl snapped.
“Exactly!” Dorian shouted. “So why would Celestia? She treated you like a damn son!”
“Because… because…” Star Swirl started, trying to think of an answer.
“Exactly!” Dorian shouted again, louder than before. “You can’t answer, but I can. She wouldn’t have been angry at you in the slightest, I may be crazy but at least I’m sane enough to see that!”
Star Swirl stared at him in silence, his eyes wide and ear low. The two were silent for a while before the unicorn turned his back on the mischief god.
“I think we’re done here…” he said softly. “I’ll see you another time…”
And with that, the vision of Star Swirl faded, leaving Dorian in the room alone. He sighed loudly and silently floated out of the room, his appearance reverting as he came to stand at the top of the stairs and bange dhis fist against the door frame.
“Damn it, Star… why, why are you ponies so bloody stubborn!”
He took one last look down the stairs and shook his head, before vanishing into thin air.
Dorian lifted his head up from his palms and looked out across the sea, watching the gulls cry as they flew overhead. He then glared at them, snapping his fingers and turning them into chickens which squeaked in alarm as they slowly floated down to the sea. He grinned as a large shark leapt up and snapped the seagull-turned-chicken in one go and stood up, stretching his back and popping it as he dusted himself down.
The mischief god stood up and popped his back, yawning loudly as he rested his hands on his hips and grumbled.
“Still not happy,” he growled softly. “I need to vent my—”
“Well look at this, brother of mine!”
“It’s a strange being that we’ve never seen before!”
Dorian spun on the spot at the sudden voices, arching his brow as he spotted two unicorn stallions, one with a moustache. Both of them were wearing white and blue striped jackets and a dapper hat. Behind them was a large machine, something Dorian was instantly curious about.
“I don’t suppose you could tell us where the town, ‘Ponyville’ is? I’m afraid my brother and I have lost our way,” one of them asked.
The other nodded, “Tis a sad tale, dear brother, isn’t it? Oh, how we wish we never lost that map!
Then, Dorian’s lips curled into a mischievous smile.
“Perfect…” he chuckled.
***Promise curse - When a person is under the effects of a promise curse, they are physically unable to mention what the promise relates to. In this case, Dorian is physically unable to tell Celestia about what he has promised.
That was what was currently reigning over the whole of the gala at the moment Damon showed his face. The crowd simply stared at him, a mixture of emotions and feelings running madly through each and everyone of them as they tried to comprehend what it was exactly they were lookin at.
Some, thought it was a trick. Somehow a trick of the light.
Others, thought it was an amusing little joke from the princess to liven up the evening's’ festivities.
Some simply thought that the reaper had rising into the form of a bipedal creature and had come to claim their very souls, despite its attire.
Celestia nervously glanced at the crowd’s faces and was about to speak when Kalanar placed a reassuring hand on her back. But just as he was about to speak to the crowd, Damon spoke up first.
“Mares and gentlecolts, please do not be alarmed at my appearance. For you see, during the battle with the nefarious monster. I was sadly, mortally wounded. Nearly beyond saving.”
The crowd murmured to themselves as Celestia thought she saw a vein throb in Kalanar’s forehead.
“And during the battle, I took a direct blast of magic in order to prevent the deaths of… uh… some fillies that were unfortunately nearby. Luckily, before I died, I was able to erm… perform a spell that enabled me to remain alive. However, it came with the cost of becoming a lich.”
Celestia, Luna, Blueblood, the elements, Berry, Colgate and Trixie all resisted the urge to facehoof themselves as Pinchy and Spike held back a fit of giggles.
For the love of tits, please let this work… Damon thought as he smiled to the crowd.
What seemed like an eternity passed as the silence hung in the air before the crowd burst into a round of applause and cheering. Damon exhaled the breath he didn’t notice he was holding and grinned, bowing to the crowd. Celestia let out a sigh of relief as she once again addressed the crowd.
“And now, without further adu. I declare that the Grand Galloping Gala has officially begun!”
As the crowd started to disperse and mingle, with music provided by the Royal Canterlot Orchestra starting to play, Celestia turned back to the small group.
“I think that went rather—” Damon was interrupted by Kalanar smacking the back of his head. “Hey! What was that for?”
“What have I told you about talking to nobility before I do?!” Kalanar hissed, “You know what happened last time!”
Damon winced but waved his hand dismissively, “Ahh, I learned my lesson on that. But hey, least this time it worked.”
“You’re hopeless…” Kalanar sighed.
Damon sighed loudly for what seemed like the fifth time as in many minutes. He had recently remember why he hated these kind of occasions.
They were just so, so boring.
He looked around as he drummed his bony fingers on the table and scanned the crowd. At first, he had several nobles coming up to him and chatting away to him about being a lich as well as what Cyrium was like. Whilst Kalanar had enjoyed lecturing the nobles on their homeland, Damon had hated it and was thankful when the Princess shooed the nobles away to allow him to have some time to himself.
But Damon had grown up around tavern music, lively music. Well, by grown up, he had slipped out with his friends on more than one occasion to go to the local tavern to get utterly wankered. As he tapped his fingers, he spotted Berry, Colgate and Pinchy approaching him.
“Enjoying yourself, Damon?” Berry asked.
“No,” Damon grumbled. “I forgot how boring these things are.”
“But, Uncle Bones!” Pinchy gasped. “It’s the Grand Galloping Gala!”
“And?” Damon asked, an amused look on his face.
Pinchy hopped onto his lap and placed her front hooves on his chest, staring into his eyes for more effect, “The. Grand. Galloping. Gala!”
Damon smirked, shrugging before poking her nose making her scrunch her face, “Still don’t get it.”
Before Pinchy could get more wound up, Berry bopped him on the back of his skull and shook her head, “Stop winding her up, Damon.”
“Sorry, couldn’t help it,” Damon snickered. “Want me to keep an eye on her for a bit? Let you and Colgate have some alone time.”
Pinchy grinned, knowing what Damon was doing, “Yeah, mummy. Can I stay with Uncle Bones for a bit?”
Berry was about to say something, but face hoofed seeing the two giving her puppy dog eyes. Colgate giggled and placed a hoof on her friends shoulder.
“Ah, let the kids have fun, Berry. We can go look at that painting you’ve always wanted to come see, you know, the one of the Royal winemaker back when Princess Celestia’s mother was the ruler.”
“I suppose we could… alright, you two can go and have some fun,” Berry sighed and nuzzled her daughter.
“Yay!” Pinchy grinned and hugged her mother’s neck, “See you later mummy! Bye Colgate!”
The two mares giggled as Damon and Pinchy waved them off. The two waited until the two mares were out of sight before Damon cackled.
“Time to put our complicated and convoluted plan into action, my dear Pinches!” Damon said.
“Indeed!” Pinchy grinned. “The time has come! Operation love birds commencing!”
Damon picked her up and plonked her on his head and was about to take a step when he blinked, “Wait… did Colgate call me a kid?”
Twilight nervously watched as Kalanar stood beside Princess Celestia, greeting nobles that approached them.
“Okay, Twilight. You can do this… just… remain… confident!” She said to herself softly.
Taking a deep breath and exhaling softly, she levitated over two glasses of punch she had gotten her and Kalanar and made her way over with a confident smile.
“H-here you go, Kalanar,” she said, her voice a little shaky.
“Thank you, Miss Twilight,” Kalanar smiled as he took the drink from her magic aura.
Twilight smiled as she stood beside him, she was about to speak when Celestia looked over to her.
“Twilight? Did you get my drink as well?”
The unicorn’s eyes widened as she began to panic, “O-oh my gosh! I-I’m so sorry, Princess. I forgot to—”
She was interrupted as Celestia tittered softly and placed a reassuring wing on her back.
“I’m only teasing, my dear student. I can fetch one for myself. Now, how about you take Master Kalanar here on a tour of the castle’s library?”
“But what about meeting and greeting the nobles? Won’t you need some help?” Twilight asked.
“I’ll be fine, Twilight. I’m certain both you and Master Kalanar would much prefer to have some time alone to explore the library,” Celestia smiled to her.
“I think that’s a splendid idea, your Highness.” Kalanar agreed with a smile. “Shall we, Miss Twilight?”
Twilight blushed softly and nodded with a smile. Twilight and Kalanar bid the princess farewell and the unicorn nervously lead the elf away towards a long corridor that led towards the palace’s vast library.
Good luck, Twilight, Celestia thought as she smiled after them before turning to another noble approaching her.
Damon and Pinchy peeked around the corner, watching Berry and Colgate walking side by side ahead of them before turning down a corner. The lich leaned back and tapped his chin with a bony finger as he looked up at Pinchy.
“So, Pinches. How should we get this plan started?” Damon asked.
“Hmm… well, mummy and Colgate said they were gunna go see the painting… maybe you could use your magic to make them head in the wrong direction when they head back?” Pinchy replied.
“Okay… then what?” Damon nodded, stroking his chin.
“Uhm…” Pinchy replied, tapping a hoof to her head, scrunching her face in concentration.
Damon walked into the middle of the hallway as he stroked his chin in thoughts, snapping out of his thoughts as a voice called from behind him.
“Perhaps I could be of some assistance?”
Damon spun round, Pinchy clinging to his head as he did to see Luna approaching them.
“Your Highness?” Damon blinked.
“Please, Damon. No need for such formalities. Luna will do.” The night princess smiled.
“Alright, Luna,” Damon said. “What did you mean by assistance? Shouldn’t you be doing Princess duty things with Princess Celestia?”
“I should, but those things are awfully boring… I’d forgotten how much so,” Luna replied with a roll of her eyes.
“I know what you mean, sister,” Damon snickered.
“But back to my question, I want to offer my help getting Berry together with Colgate,” Luna smiled.
“How… did you know what was our plan?” Damon asked, now holding Pinchy in his arms.
“Because, this little one,“ Luna replied, lifting Pinchy into the air and tickling her belly, making the filly giggle and wiggle her legs, “Has been dreaming nothing but this plan for a few days now.”
“You can see dreams?” Damon asked her as Pinchy was levitated onto his head again.
“Mhm, part of my duties as the Princess of the Night. I won’t bore you with details at the moment, though,” Luna explained. “Do you want my help or not?”
“Yes please, Luna!” Pinchy cried happily and bounced on Damon’s head before the lich could respond.
Luna grinned and clapped her front hooves together in glee, “Huzzuh! Something fun to do at last! Now, this is the plan…”
Prince Blueblood sighed as he walked over to a waiter carrying a tray with glasses of champagne on it, thanking the stallion as he levitated one of them as he continued to wonder almost aimlessly throughout the hall. After the group had disbanded following Damon’s fluke of a lie, the prince had decided to go and mingle with some of his noble friends, namely the noble stallion Fancypants. But now, the prince found himself on his own, Fancypants having to leave early due to an important meeting he had to attend the following day in the morning and needed to get his rest.
Since then, Blueblood had been trying to avoid as many mares as he could that tried to approach him. It wasn’t for the fact he didn’t find them attractive, a lot of Canterlot’s noble elite were very fetching for any stallion, regardless of position. It was because of two reasons.
The first reason was that, as a stallion with a high position as prince, he was constantly being fawned over by suitress’** who seemed to only to be interested in his position rather than himself. Blueblood was a romantic at heart and would honestly rather marry for love over wealth or power, but due to his position and social standing he dared not express this opinion. Less his image be tarnished with slander and vicious rumors, something he didn’t want to bring on himself or his aunts.
The second reason was that he already had his eye on somepony, and unfortunately for them she wasn’t a noble mare but a guard. A Lunar guard that he had met the other day during the fiasco in Ponyville, somepony he had yearned to spend more time with.
As he took a sip from his glass, he looked up and his eyes widened and a smile crept onto his lips. Just by one of the doorways was Moon Dancer, the mare he had his eye on. The guard noticed him as well and offered a friendly and bashful smile as he started to approach her, hoping to spend some time with her.
“Ah, your highness!” A voice called from behind him.
Drat, the prince thought.
He looked back to see Rarity approaching him with a sultry gaze. Blueblood out of politeness smiled and bowed his head to her, making the unicorn titter.
“Such a gentlestallion, may I have some of your time, my Prince?” She asked.
“Of course,” Blueblood replied as he followed her.
As the two started to walk away, Blueblood looked back to Moon Dancer and frowned seeing the Lunar guard looking down with a sad expression on her face.
Twilight and Kalanar walked through the large and impressive halls of the Canterlot library, the elven mage looking around him in wonderment and awe at the sheer amount of tomes, books and scrolls the building had to offer. He smiled as he listened to Twilight as she told him important key parts of the library before the two approached a large doorway. With a gentle push, the door creaked open and Twilight extended a hoof into yet another large part of the library.
“And this part of the library is the ‘Starswirl the Bearded’ wing,” Twilight said with pride.
“Impressive…” Kalanar muttered as he gazed over the books, “I think I read about him in one of your books in the library.”
“Probably, there are many books in the—” Twilight began before Kalanar interrupted her.
“Oh, you misunderstood me, Miss Twilight. I meant your books. Forgive an old mage for prying, but young Master Spike showed me one of the unpublished works you’ve been writing about Starswirl and I must say, it was simply fascinating.”
Twilight blushed softly, “D-do you mean it?”
“Of course, why, I wish Damon was half the studious intellect you are,” Kalanar smiled down to her. “Do you wish to be a historical author? Or perhaps a teacher in a university?”
Twilight beamed up at the elf, a happy blush on her face, “Thank you, Kalanar. That means a lot to me, and yeah I-I had this silly idea of being an author, writing about historical figures as well as the history of magic. But it’s just a silly notion…”
Kalanar scoffed, “It most certainly is not a silly notion, Miss Twilight.”
Twilight looked up at the mage as he knelt down and put a hand on her shoulder reassuringly and smiled, his obsidian eyes looking directly into her violet eyes.
“The people who make the world a better place are the dreamers who pursue their dreams, the ones who are willing to break the monotonous mold of normality in life and chase after what others have deemed impossible. If you want to be an author, Miss Twilight. The only one who is stopping you, is yourself. Believe in yourself, Miss Twilight, as your friends and I do.”
Twilight felt her eyes water slightly as her lip quivered, she reached up and wrapped her hooves around Kalanar’s neck and hugged him, to which the elf happily returned.
“Thank you…” she whispered with a soft sniffle.
“You are most welcome, Miss Twilight,” Kalanar smiled as he wiped the tears from the corner of her eyes carefully. “Now, how about you finish the tour and we head back to our friends?”
“Yes, I’d like that,” Twilight smiled softly as the two continued to walk. “The Starswirl wing was erected by the Princess…”
Berry and Colgate stared up at the large portrait hanging on the wall. It depicted a stallion in very traditional clothes from the period before the Diarchy rule and Equestria was ruled by Queen Aeterna and King Terra. Celestia and Luna’s parents.
The stallion was holding a fine looking wine glass that was filled with a deep red liquid, he was holding it in the air and looking at it intently. Behind him were several barrels with a couple that were open displaying its contents of grapes. Berry stared at the image with admiration in her eyes.
“Someday... I’m going to take his mantle,” Berry said with a determined grin.
“Hmm?” Colgate asked, looking over to the earth pony.
“His mantle as the greatest winemaker in Equestria’s history,” Berry replied.
Colgate smirked, “Is that so?”
“You bet! Just you watch, Colgate!” Berry nodded.
“If you say so~” Colgate giggled, bumping her flank against Berry’s.
Berry giggled back, returning the bump as she looked up at the painting.
From around the corner, Damon, Pinchy and Luna poked their heads out ever so slightly to see what the two mares were doing. Once they saw they were looking at the painting, they pulled their heads back and nodded.
“Commence phase one,” Damon whispered.
Luna nodded and placed a hoof in front of him. Damon placed his bony hand on top of it followed by Pinchy placing her little hoof on top of his hand. They then dipped them before breaking and Luna teleported silently away from them.
“Let’s go back to the party, Berry,” Colgate said.
Berry nodded, “Alright, lead the way.”
As the two mares started to walk back down the hallway, Damon cracked his knuckles carefully before wiggling his fingers and muttering under his breath. there was a small flash of light ahead of the two mares who thankfully for Damon didn’t seem to notice it and continued down the hallway, eventually taking a right.
Damon and Pinchy smirked at one another before they slipped out of their hiding spot and followed Berry and Colgate down the corridor.
“And this was the being known as ‘Power’,” Twilight smiled.
“I see…” Kalanar replied as he stroked his chin.
The elven mage looked up at the strange statue Twilight had showed him within the palace grounds in fascination. It was bipedal to say the least, but what got his curiosity up about it was that the figure was clad in armor and had a vicious sneer on his face. The statue had a single arm raised up and a fist clenched and etched onto his fist was a strange formation of three triangles with one of them being a few shades of grey darker compared to the rest of the statue.
The figure literally radiated power, but this wasn’t what caused his curiosity to be pipped.
It was the fact that he could see behind the statues steely gaze was another gaze, a gaze that seemed to belong to a frail, weak willed and somewhat pathetic human of all things. A human that seemed to be pretending they were another person they were not.
Or, at least, thats what he thought.
“I’m still intrigued as to why you Equestrian’s do this as a punishment,” Kalanar said as he gesturing to the statue.
“Hmm? What do you mean?” Twilight asked as she looked up at him.
“Well, from what you’ve said. You don’t actually kill them when you imprison them, you just seal them in a sort of… time lock state where they exist but not in the stream of time everyone else does. So they don’t physically age.”
Twilight nodded as the old mage continued.
“So… with prisoners such as Discord and this chap who have been in there for as you say, hundreds upon hundreds of years. Is it safe to say that they must be borderline insane at this point?” Kalanar asked.
“What do you mean?” Twilight replied, tilting her head. “While it’s true they are trapped in a time lock state, they are more or less frozen in time with no knowledge of what’s going on outside their prison,”
“Ah, but that isn’t always the case. Remember, Discord is aware of his surroundings as told to me by Princess Celestia. Given she and him have conversed many times.”
Twilight looked up at him in silence. she was unaware that Discord could do that, let alone that Celestia was even aware of it. For some reason, she felt a tinge of pity for Discord.
If he was indeed aware of his surroundings, presumably because of his near god like status and power, than what of the other statues? Where they aware of their surroundings? Where they slowly going mad.
“Think about it, what do you think would happen to an intelligent mind if it was trapped and on its own with no one else for company other than itself. Coupled with the fact they had nothing to do but think and talk to themselves. Wouldn’t you go mad if you were in that position?” Kalanar continued.
Twilight looked up at the statue and lowered her ears, mulling his words over her mind, “I guess you’re right… that’s a horrible thought…”
Kalanar knelt down and stroked her back softly, “I know it is, Miss Twilight… but we can’t do much dwelling on the thought, though. What’s been done is done.”
Twilight nodded softly, still thinking about what the elf had said. Kalanar frowned a little seeing how disturbed Twilight was at what he had said and with a quick motion, he gave her ear a little scratch eliciting a sigh of contentment from the mare.
“I may be wrong, though. Miss Twilight,” he said, “It very well could be that it’s just Discord who is aware, after all he is an unpredictable fellow.”
Twilight smiled softly up at him as he smiled back at her.
“Come on, let’s head back now. I think the Princess may wonder where her ‘special guests’ have gotten to, knowing that boy he’s up to something.”
Twilight giggled softly, “Hopefully he hasn’t been bothering too many ponies, our kind have a bad habit of being easily excitable.”
Colgate and Berry walked in silence as they walked down the corridor. Most ponies would consider that a silence between two ponies alone was due to a problem caused by the pair, but not in this case. Colgate and Berry both had a look of annoyance etched onto their faces but not because of each other.
“Are you sure this is the way we came from?” Colgate groaned as they rounded yet another corner.
“I’m certain this is where we came from…” Berry muttered.
The two mares stopped for a moment to get their bearings. Looking around, they were in one of the palace’s corridors still. Ever since they had left the corridor that contained the famous winemaker painting, they had been walking down an endless corridors that just seemed to go on for much longer than they remembered, there was also seemingly a lot more of them.
“Let’s just try this way,” Colgate sighed as she headed for the end of the corridor and started to head down the left side.
Berry followed suite and jumped with a yelp when Colgate suddenly screamed loudly in frustration.
“Are you kidding me?!” she shouted.
“What is it, Col—” Berry began but stopped when she saw the reason why.
There, in front of them, was the corridor they were in earlier. And hanging on the wall, was the same painting of the winemaker.
“How in blue blazes did we get back here?!” Colgate groaned loudly.
“This smells fishy…” Berry said as she glared at the paintings, “And I think that a certain lich is behind this…”
“Really? What, do you think he’s using magic to make us walk in a complete circle?” Colgate asked.
“I’m not sure, but I wouldn’t put it past him to try a prank or something…” Berry muttered.
“Maybe…” Colgate agreed, “Want the first punch if it is him doing this?”
“Did you need to ask?” Berry smirked.
The two mares giggled but abruptly stopped when they felt a soft wind blow over them and looked up. They saw a small mist form near the end of the corridor, being carried by the wind that formed into an arrow pointing right. Berry and Colgate looked at one another in confusion, then looked back to see the wind whisk itself away down the right.
“D… do we follow it?” Berry asked.
Colgate shrugged, “Dunno… do you want to?”
“Might as well, who knows. Might lead us back to the others, “she said with a slight chuckle.
The two slowly made their way forwards towards the end of the corridor and cautiously looked down the right. They saw the same cloud of mist seemingly floating in mid air at the end of the corridor, occasionally pointing to the left turning at the end.
With the same cautious pace as before, Berry and Colgate slowly made their way after the mist, watching it take off down the left corridor. Like before, they peeked their heads around the corridor seeing the mist once more pointing to the right. With a little more speed, they walked after it, both mares curiosity getting the better of them with each step they took.
From behind them, they failed to spot a familiar boney face peeking out from where they had just come from, a victorious grin on his face.
“Uncle Bones?” Pinchy whispered, “Will Mummy and Colgate really hit you?”
Damon shrugged, “Probably, I’m used to it. Come on, let’s get to our places,”
Pinchy giggled as she and Damon vanished in a flash of white. By now, Colgate and Berry’s curiosity had gotten the better of them and the two were now rushing after the mist. Turning left and right over and over until eventually they came to a halt by a pair of large glass doors that led out onto a balcony. The mist was floating beside it, pointing out at the balcony or more importantly, what as on the balcony.
On the balcony was a table, two chairs, two candles and two plates with food on them. Confused, the two mares slowly approached the glass door. The mist moved to the door and hovered for a moment before disappearing, followed by the glass doors opening by themselves, letting a delightful breeze in that flew over the two mares softly.
With a cautious look to one another, the two mares walked out onto the balcony and gingerly sat down.
“Is… this food for us?” Colgate asked.
“I think it is…” Berry replied, taking a sniff of the plate in front of her and sighing happily, “My goodness this smells good.”
Suddenly, the wine bottle on the table levitated and slowly poured the two a glass before settling back down. Then, they both squeaked as they were pushed in ever so gently by their chairs closer to the table.
“Well… better not waste the food I guess?” Colgate giggled.
“Guess you’re—”
Berry paused as she looked up, her eyes widened slightly. From her perspective, the only thing illuminating Colgate’s face was the flickering of the two candles, Berry stared over at her friend, a soft blush forming on her cheeks. The way the candle light made Colgate’s face light up was beautiful to the mare, the unicorns eyes glistening in the dancing candlelight was utterly mesmerizing to Berry.
“Berry, you okay?” Colgate asked with a blush of her own, giggling softly, “You seem to be lost in your own world.”
“Y-yeah, sorry. It’s just… you look really beautiful,” Berry replied, looking away as her blush grew more.
“Thank y-you…” Colgate smiled, rubbing her front leg with a hoof, “You look beautiful as well…”
Berry smiled as the two started their meal. From above, just sitting on the roof was Damon with Pinchy sat safely on his shoulders and holding onto his head. Beside him was Luna, all three watching with big grins on their faces.
“The plan is working, my skeleton friend!” Luna whispered with a soft squee, “This is how they have pictured it in their dreams!”
“Dreams?” Damon whispered back, “What do you mean?”
“I’m the guardian of dreams, Damon. I can see what our little ponies dream about. Whenever I see these two dreaming about finally being honest with one another, this is basically how they have always dreamt for several months how the other would say it. To be truthful it has been annoying me greatly that neither one has just ‘mared’ up and told the other.”
Pinchy giggled softly, “So my mummy and Colgate really do like each other then?”
“Indeed, little one,” Luna replied.
“I knew it!” Pinchy grinned.
“Told ya, Pinches,” Damon snickered.
The three remained on their perch, watching down at the two mares conversing over dinner. Every now and again, Damon would use his magic like before to levitate the wine bottle over to their glasses in order to re-fill them. The skeleton sighed happily as he watched the two enjoying themselves, Luna noticed his smile and nudged him gently.
“You did good, Damon,” She smiled.
“Yeah!” Pinchy agreed.
“Thanks, after all that mare’s done for me. I figured I could give her back something, and when I saw how she and Colgate would often look at one another one thing led to another. I’m just giving them a little nudge out of the door they have kept their true feelings behind for so long.”
Pinchy nuzzled into Damon’s head and sniffled happily, “Now I can have two awesome mummies…”
Damon chuckled and pulled Pinchy of his head and gave her a soft and warm cuddle, smiling down at the two mares.
“Well… that meal was delicious. But not as much as the company,” Berry giggled.
Colgate blushed and giggled back, “I do believe you’re a little tipsy, Miss Berry.”
“Maybe…” Berry giggled again, “But seriously, I really had a good time with you,”
“Same here… we need t-to do this—”
Colgate was interrupted by a bright light that whizzed over the night sky. The two mares got up from the table and walked over to the edge of the balcony looking into the night sky, gasping as they watched several meteorites rush past, the trails illuminating in the sky.
“Wow…” Berry whispered.
As the two watched, Luna smiled happily, her horn glowing, as she continued to guide the meteorites across her night sky. Making sure each every single one of them glowed as brightly as they could. Damon watched before placing Pinch on Luna’s head carefully and standing up, rubbing his hands together.
“We just need one last thing…”
Before Luna or Pinchy could say anything, Damon gently clapped his hands together and held them out with the palms point upwards. Soon after, a loud screeching sound echoed in the night as a trail of fire and sparks rocketed into the sky before exploding into a variety of several colours. This was soon followed by several rockets being launched into the air and exploding, making the sky light up in a beautiful array of colours and patterns. Ponies outside the main hall of the castle where the gala was being held watched in awe at the spectacle.
Colgate and Berry watched with foalish delight at the fireworks before their eyes fell on each other. They both stared at one another, their faces being half illuminated by the fireworks. They both began to feel a strange wave of courage wash over them, probably helped by the alcohol.
They both knew it was now or never.
“Colgate…” Berry started.
“Yeah, Berry… ?” Colgate replied.
There was a silence between the two before they both spoke at the same time, “There’ something I’ve really been wanting to tell you!”
They both covered their own mouths with their hooves.
“You first,” they both said.
“No, after you,” They said at the same time again.
Damon wanted to slap his face in frustration.
One of you just say it! he thought.
The two mares remained silent again for a moment as they continued to stare into each others eyes, lost in them.
Now or never! they both thought at the same time.
“I love you!” They both blurted out.
Instantly, they brought their hooves over their mouths and their eyes widened. Berry and Colgate just stared at each other as the three on the roof leaned in, hearts beating, well two anyway, in anticipation.
Without another word, the two mares slowly leaned in and closed their eyes, locking their lips as the fireworks exploded rapidly in the night sky. Luna and Pinchy gave a silent cheer and hugged one another as Damon jumped up and punched the sky.
But the lich suddenly yelped loudly as he lost his footing and fell down the roof before Luna could react. He cried out as he fell off the roof and smashed into the table, breaking it and sending wood, glass and everything else everywhere. The noise startled the two mare’s passionate kiss and they jumped, spinning around to see Damon on his back, groaning.
“D-Damon?!” Berry gawked.
“Uh… hey, you two… nice evening, isn’t it?” He said with a meek smile.
As the two mares looked at him with a glare that could turn a cockatrice to stone. Pinchy and Luna merely facehoofed.
“And that, my dear Prince, is how we became the elements of harmony!” Rarity finished.
“I see, what a riveting tale. Miss Rarity,” Blueblood replied.
“Oh, such manners. Please, your highness. Rarity will suffice,” the mare smiled whilst batting her eyelids.
“Very well, Rarity,” he said with a smile.
“But enough about me, please do tell me a little about yourself, your highness.”
“Uhm, well there isn’t much to tell, I’m afraid,” Blueblood replied, “I’m just the nephew to Princess Celestia and Luna really, I don’t do much other than deal with some internal affairs and a few public appearances in Canterlot when my aunts can’t attend.”
“Oh, nonsense. I’m certain a fine stallion such as yourself is held in highest regards amongst the elite,” Rarity said.
Blueblood snorted, “Hardly… you should hear what some of them call me.”
“What do you mean?” Rarity asked, a little puzzled.
The two made their way out of the main area of the Gala and down a quiet corridor that had a few ponies coming and going. Mainly staff and the odd guard or two.
“I don’t really have any power as such in the city or within the kingdom. It’s just… aunt Celestia gave me the title of Prince once my mother had asked her to look after me when she had gone,” Blueblood explained, a hint of sadness in his voice.
“Oh… I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to drag—”
“It’s alright,” the prince interrupted, “my mother passed away when I was still a colt and my father died fighting a bandit raid in the Western borders a few months prior to my birth.”
“So, and do forgive me asking. The Princess’ aren’t…?” Rarity trailed off.
“My aunts by blood? Yes, you’d be correct,” Blueblood replied, “though they’re aren’t blood. They are still family to me and I wouldn’t change that for the world.”
Rarity smiled at him as the two continued to walk. The two came to a small balcony on the second floor, neither one really remembering how they actually got their. There was a short silence as the two looked up at the night sky, admiring the fireworks that were going off.
“Could you tell me about your parents?” Rarity asked, finally breaking the silence.
The Prince smiled, “My mother and father were nobles and close friends to Princess Celestia. Father, if I recall, was the first Lieutenant serving under the then Captain of the Royal Guard, Iron Wing.”
Blueblood chuckled softly, “When I was a colt, mother would often regale me the stories that she had been told by him of his various deeds and conquests whilst in the guard, giving me the impression he was a hard stallion who didn’t let his emotions get the better of him. Only to then tell me that when they were together, he became the most emotional and loving stallion she had ever seen.”
Rarity giggled softly, “And you mother?”
Blueblood smiled and chuckled softly, “The definition of eccentric, if you ask aunt Celestia. Apparently, she was a very, very vocal and bubbly mare. Never afraid to tell others what she thought of them and often scolded aunt Celestia for being self doubting at times, if you can believe that.”
Rarity nodded silently, understanding why that would come across as hard to believe.
“I miss them, I really do. And even though I never met my father, aunt Celestia says that he wouldn’t want me dwelling on the past. But, rather, to look to the future, knowing that they will always be with me in my heart… sorry, that probably sounds silly—”
“Of course not, darling,” Rarity interrupted him and smiled, looking up at the prince, “If anything, it sounds like you come from a background some ponies would be envious of.”
“Really?” Blueblood asked as he looked to the mare.
Rarity blushed softly as the fireworks went off behind them, “Really…”
The two ponies stared at one another as they were partly illuminated by the fireworks, both feeling their respective hearts beating rapidly. Blueblood blushed slightly as Rarity slowly leaned into his face, just as she was about to kiss him, he turned his head away and sighed.
“Miss Rarity… you’re a beautiful mare, that is something no stallion can deny. But…”
“You love another, don’t you?” Rarity finished.
Blueblood merely nodded, “Indeed… I’m sorry, Miss Rarity. I must seem like such a—”
Rarity put her hoof to his lips, silencing him, “I said to call me Rarity, did I not? And it’s okay, your highness. I do rather think I might have been rushing things… one can’t just expect something as complicated as love to happen just like that.”
There was a brief silence as the two looked away and all around themselves. Anywhere but the others face.
“So… may I enquire who the lucky mare is?” Rarity asked with a smirk.
Blueblood sighed softly, “You’ve met her, I believe. Back in Ponyville.”
“Is it one of my friends? I didn’t take you for having a thing for a pegasus or earth pony,” Rarity teased as she gave him a playful bump with her flank.
Blueblood chuckled softly, “It’s one of my aunt Luna’s guards… Moon Dancer,”
Rarity gasped, “A Prince in love with a guard? Oh how romantic!”
“And somewhat looked down upon,“ Blueblood sighed.
“Oh?” Rarity asked.
“Even though there is no law against it, most nobles look down upon one of ‘noble’ blood being in love or being with a mere commoner or even someone of the serving classes, such as the guard.”
Blueblood let out an annoyed sigh.
“Even with Captain Armor being together with my cousin, Cadance. The nobles have tried their best to get the two to call it off with no effect, partly in thanks to my aunts.”
“Wait, Princess Cadance is dating the Captain of the guard?” Rarity asked as Blueblood nodded, “Oh… just soromantic!”
Blueblood chuckled softly but soon found himself sighing again, “I don’t want to put her through all of that, though. It wouldn’t be right if—”
“Prince Blueblood,” Rarity began, “do you even know if she likes you back?”
“I-I’m not sure…” the stallion admitted.
“Well, you can’t start dwelling on what might happen, if you don’t take a chance.”
“Pardon?” Blueblood asked.
“What are you waiting for,” Rarity giggled, “go to her. And if you don’t mind the vulgar language, buck what the nobles say if she returns the feelings. What would your parents say if they heard you now?”
“To do what is right in my heart…” Blueblood replied before smiling, “Thank you, Miss Rarity.”
“Anytime, your highness. And stop calling me Miss,” Rarity giggled, “makes me feel older than I am.”
“Only if you call me without a title,” Blueblood challenged with a grin.
“Deal, Blueblood,” Rarity smiled.
Blueblood gently planted a soft kiss on the mare’s cheek before heading off the balcony and back to where the main part of the Gala was. Before he did, he turned to look at Rarity one more time and smiled.
“Thank you, you’re going to make whoever you choose to be with the luckiest in Equestria.”
Rarity smiled as the prince dashed off down the hall, turning back to look up at the night sky as a single tear slid down her cheek but letting out a happy sigh. The silence was then interrupted by someone approaching.
“Hey… you okay, Rarity?”
She looked round to see Spike, looking up with a concerned look on his face. The unicorn smiled and dabbed her tear with her handkerchief and approached him.
“Of course I am, Spike. I just had a delightful conversation with Prince Blueblood.”
“Oh, him…” Spike said sadly, “did you get together with him then?”
“No, Spike. We decided it wasn't meant to be,” Rarity replied.
“R-really?!” Spike asked with a hopeful grin only to cough and blush in embarrassment, “I mean, I’m sorry, Rarity.”
Rarity giggled softly, “It’s quite alright, Spike. Now… how about you take me to that doughnut place you mentioned to me from time to time? My little Prince.”
“Y-you mean it?” Spike replied.
Rarity nodded, “Of course I do, Spike. Shall we?”
“After you, my lady,” Spike replied with a bow.
“My, such a gentledrake!” Rarity giggled as she and Spike began to head off down another corridor and out of the palace.
A black shadow made its way along the corridors of the palace, sticking to the naturally created shadows of inanimate objects as well as ponies themselves as it made a quick beeline for the palace gardens. As it continued to move, it stopped at the entrance to the main part of the gala and slunk in, a childish giggle coming from it as it slowly rose up against the wall behind the shadow of a pillar.
Soon, a familiar figure began to appear in the form of the mischief deity himself, Dorian. He watched the two talk for a moment before he smirked and a light bulb appeared above him.
“Lightbulb… I think I know how to make this evening go off with a bang before the even bigger bang at the end and provide enough chaos to give him a good old re-charge. This idea will be the perfect amount of chaos for him! And anyway,” Dorian continued as he talked to himself. “Damon’s served his purpose, and besides, I have a lovely little present waiting for him back in Ponyville.”
The deity stroked his chin softly.
“Shame I had to mind control those two unicorns but by me where they irritating. Besides, this is the best idea I’ve had for a distraction! Just gotta flex the old posession powers and—”
Dorian then noticed a guard looking at him with wide eyes. The two stared at one another before he leaned over and booped the guard on the nose. The guard shook his head as he seemed to look around as if he had forgotten why he was there and seemingly could no longer see Dorian before shrugging and moving along.
“That was close… now, time to repay ol’ Trixie for helping ol’ Dorian out earlier!”
And with that, Dorian slunk back into a shadowy form and zipped along the floor, making a charge for Pinkie Pie.
“This Gala is boring Trixie…”
Trixie groaned as she laid her head on the table she was sat at, she watched the others party the night away but she couldn’t help but be bored. None of the music was to her liking, the only alcohol available was champagne, and she hated that, and to top it all off. The bloody lich had run off somewhere with his niece, leaving her with no one to argue with.
The magician let out a louder groan as she slumped her head to the side, only to be greeted with a grinning faceful of pink.
“Hi!” Pinkie said.
“Gaah!” Trixie yelped as she stumbled backwards.
Pinkie giggled-snorted as Trixie glared at her.
“What do you want?” Trixie asked.
“Well… I saw you looking all grumpy and all by your lonesome and I was all like ‘there’s no way I’m gunna let somepony be all grumpy-wumpy at the best event EVER in all of Equestria besides my own parties, you know?”
“Uhm… can you repeat it-the uh… what?” Trixie replied.
Pinkie giggled again, “You’re so silly, Trixie. Come on, I’m going to make you smile, smile smile! Even if it kills you!”
Trixie blinked, “Wait, what?”
Pinkie didn’t reply as she dragged the showmare out of her seat and onto the dance floor where she began to dance wildly to the music. Trixie sheepishly stood there and rubbed her leg, not really comfortable with the fact that several ponies were now staring at the two.
“Come, Trix! Shake that body!” Pinkie shouted as she continued to dance manically.
As Trixie took note of the other ponies, she failed to notice a shadow make its way into Pinkies, making the mare suddenly stop and stare forwards as her eyes quickly changed from blue to a light grey. Giving a few blinks, the pink mare shrugged off the odd feeling she had gotten and looked back at Trixie.
“Trixie… isn’t sure how to dance…” she muttered.
“It’s easy, silly filly!” Pinkie giggled, “let me show you!”
“No, wait—EEK!”
Trixie squeaked as Pinkie grabbed her and pulled her into a standing position on their hind legs in the middle of the dance floor, their chests pressing together as Pinke held Trixes hoof in one hand and the other around her waist. Trixie blinked as she found her own hoof resting on Pinkie’s shoulder.
As she processed what was going on, the lights went out before a single beam shone on the two. Trixie began to look around, her eyes wide with confusion and blinked when she saw Pinkie, who was wearing a black tuxedo vest with a white button top, a white cravat around her neck, a red sash around her waist and oddly enough, a fake pencil moustache.
“Follow my lead, Cara mia…” Pinkie said with an alluring accent.
“Wah?” Trixie managed to burble out.
As if on cue, a violin began to play with a soft piano in the background. All eyes were now on the two mares as Trixie tried to process what the heck was going on. Pinkie began to gently kiss up up Trixie’s neck before making her way down to her hoof on the other side of her body, confusing the mare and making her blush a bright shade of red.
“What are you doing?!” Trixie hissed, a wave of embarrassment hitting her like a ton of bricks.
“Helping you put on your best performance yet…” Pinkie replied, “call it… a repayment.”
Suddenly, the violin was joined by a chorus of wind instruments as Pinkie twirled Trixie on the spot at a quick speed before stopping her dead on facing her. Pinkie wrapped a hoof around Trixie's waist again and extended her hoof out and waited, looking at Trixie with an expectant stare.
Seeing no way out of it, Trixie sighed and placed her hoof in Pinkie’s before the two made their way down the dance floor side by side, the show mare finding it confusing how she was able to stand up so well on her hind legs.
They came to a stop as the music became more upbeat and walked in a circle before Pinkie dipped Trixie in a small half circle and pulled her up. Slowly getting into it, Trixie mimicked Pinkie as the mare looked right then left and she left to right. The two then moved to the left and stamped on the ground before moving back with Pinkie twirling the show mare as they went.
The crowd were watching with great interest as Pinkie held Trixie to her side and gently span in a circle with her, giving her one final twirl. They came to a table where a lone stallion in a uniform was watching and Trixie smirked.
She wants a show, Trixie will give a show! she thought.
As Pinkie looked away, Trixie slowly stroked the cheek of the stallion. Pinkie looked back and gasped loudly, grabbing Trixie’s other hoof and pulling her away into a quick spin across the dance floor making flames appear in a line which caused several spectators to gasp.
Trixie gasped loudly in surprise when she suddenly came to a stop in front of Pinkie, trying to work out how the mare had gotten there. Judging from the looks others were giving, they were equally confused. As the two stared, Trixie felt her heart beating rapidly and her body getting warmer as she felt a strange feeling come over her as she stared into the pink mare’s eyes.
Across the dance floor, Applejack and Rainbow Dash stood side by side watching the dance with dropped jaws and dumbfounded expressions.
“Sure ahm… don’t even ask me to explain what they hay is going on…”
Rainbow Dash looked at the small black flask she had smuggled into the Gala, then back at the two dancers before pouring the brown contents into a nearby plant pot.
“Shoulda brought the whiskey…” she muttered.
Trixie and Pinkie continued to dance in a circle, the show mare now more or less getting into the dance and treating it like one of her performances. The two quick stepped to the side before Trixie was twirled on the spot slowly again by the pink mare, only for Pinkie to then lean down and light the cigarette of an attractive mare watching them at a nearby table.
The showmare gasped before glaring, Oh no you don’t.
With a quick and soft grunt, she grabbed Pinkie and pulled her away, making the pink mare do a few backflips before landing and pulling a red tablecloth from one of the nearby tables without knocking anything over. The occupants of the table gasped as she did before lightly applauding the mare, who began to spin around with the cloth.
As she did this, Trixie looked to the table beside her and saw a basket that contained muscles and picked two up with her magic, clicking them together like maracas. Pinkie continued to twirl the cloth around, giving Trixie a look that screamed ‘time for the finale!’
Returning the muscles to the basket, Trixie suddenly picked a knife with her magic and threw it at the Pink mare who snapped her lead left, catching the knife in her mouth causing the whole floor to gasp in shock.
She twirled the cloth one last time before discarding it and throwing the knife into the ground with a thunk. The two then started to make their way towards one another as the music kept in time, joining hooves once more before Pinkie twirled Trixie and gently lowered her to the floor and began to rapidly spin her on the floor before yanking her up.
They embraced for a brief second before Pinkie dipped Trixie and they embraced lips, the showmare not hesitating in returning the kiss as dozens of corked bottles of champagne burst free and sprayed the contents as the crowd began to clap and stomp their hooves in thunderous applause.
The two mares broke their kiss, each one panting as Trixie blushed heavily.
“T-Trixie is no longer bored…” she panted.
“Cara mia…” Pinkie replied, “Shall we continue this back at my place later this evening?”
“Trixie w-would like that… yes.”
Pinkie giggled, suddenly returning to her normal voice, “Great! Can’t wait Trixiedelicious!”
Trixie landed on her front legs again and made her way back to her table with a goofy yet happy expression on her face as the pink mare trotted over to her two friends who were still staring at her with gobsmacked expressions.
“And that, girls, is how you really pick up a mare!”
As the two watched her trot past and head down a corridor, Pinkie came to a stop as her body froze and she stared blankly forwards. Her eyes returned to their normal colour as Dorian’s shadow slipped from hers and scarpered away down the corridor and out into the gardens.
“What the, how the hay I get here? And why do I have this awesome moustache? What’s going on?” Pinkie asked a loud.
“What… the fuck… just happened?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Ah don’t know, ah don’t want to know. Hell, ah ain’t even sure as to when Pinkie started liking Trixie!”
“... Want to head to Doughnut Joe’s to hit the hard cider he has?” Rainbow asked.
“Don’t need to ask me twice…” Applejack replied.
From where she was sat with her sister, Celestia blinked as she tried to process what exactly she had just watched. Twilight had told her about the strangeness of Pinkie but never had she witnessed it before like this, to her, it didn’t seem normal.
From what Twilight had said in her letters, Pinkie was prone to random acts of silliness that were hard to if not impossible to explain.
But this display? Being able to appear in a new outfit, change the lighting and the music the orchestra was playing as well as do.. .well, all of what she did, seemed just to impossible for the mare to do alone. As if she was being controlled by someone, or something else.
The alicorn stroked her chin as she watched after Pinkie as she headed down a corridor. She squinted her eyes as focused on something for a brief moment when she was jolted in her seat by her sister, making her look away for a brief moment and glare at her sister.
“Woo! Now that is how you court somepony, is it not, Tia?!” Luna cried as she furiously clapped her hooves together, “much better than the old days.”
“Yes… quite, but something didn’t seem right,” Celestia replied.
“What do you mean?”
“Well—”
The alicorn froze as she felt a tingle go up her spine and her eyes went wide as Luna looked at her with concern.
“Tia?”
“No… no it can’t be! Oh Celestia you stupid mare! I knew something was wrong!”
Celestia suddenly replied before dashing off, being followed by a worried Luna and a few guards who were equally confused at the sudden panic of the Princess.
Dorian watched with a smirk as the crack on Discord’s statue grew and grew before it finally enveloped him in a white light and cracked, revealing the draconequus before him.
“What took you so long?” Discord grumbled as he cracked his spine.
“Wanted to mess with mortals, get them to do the dirty work. You know how it is Dissy,” Dorian grinned before snarling, “but Damon was taking to long, so I figured I’d just bust you out with a giant boost of chaos whilst organizing his punishment back in Ponyville!”
“Yes, I felt that. You must tell me what you did,” Discord chuckled, “my powers aren’t fully back yet, but I've got enough to use basic magic.”
Dorian helped Discord down as the draconequus turned to his friend.
“So what happens now?” he asked as Damon held him down by holding his hand and wrist.
Dorian chuckled and grinned, “Let’s go practice chaos…”
The two then vanished, just as the two sisters ran round the corner and gasped.
“No… he’s free,” Luna whispered.
Celestia lowered her head before raising it to look at the empty spot where Discord’s statue once was.
On their way back to the Gala, Twilight and Kalanar had ended up taking a small detour to visit Twilight’s old room that she studied in during her early years of being Celestia’s student. The princess had kept the room relatively untouched since Twilight left it and moved into her larger one a couple of years back, only having it cleaned on a weekly basis by the maids.
Twilight often came to the room even after moving out of it, for the sake of nostalgia and to reminisce about her past.
“May I ask what that crib is for?” Kalanar asked, indicating the small baby crib near the bed.
“Oh, that was Spike’s bed when he was still a baby.”
“But… aren’t you a few years older than him?” Kalanar asked.
Twilight nodded, “Even though I’m sorta his mum in the sense I did hatch his egg... He’s more like my little brother, Celestia was the one who really raised him. And when she wasn’t able to, Spike always had Nanny Blackberry.”
“I see,” Kalanar replied, “still find it strange that a dragon was raised by ponies of all things…”
“How is that strange?” Twilight asked, a little hurt at the statement.
“I wasn’t trying to cause offense, Miss Twilight,” Kalanar reassured her, “it’s just, in my world dragons are very solitary creatures. The only ones who do interact and socialize are the ones who work with the Templars and the Draynor, the Dragon-folk.”
“Dragon-folk?” Twilight asked.
Kalanar nodded, “Offspring of humans who mated with dragons years ago. They’re a cross breed, like half-elves.”
Twilight nodded, having heard of half elves before hand from Kalanar. Kalanar’s eyes drifted over to a nearby nightstand with a book on it, entitled ‘Photo Album’. Curiously, the mage walked over to the book and picked it up, opening it just as Twilight realised what he was holding.
“N-no, wait!” she quickly said with an extended hoof.
It was too late though.
Kalanar’s eyebrow arched slightly and a small smile formed on his face as he gazed over the pages. On the first page was a picture of a little filly Twilight, beaming happily up at him with two saddlebags either side of her frame that were bulging fit to burst with books, quills and other various equipment. On the opposite page was a small slip of paper with some writing on it.
‘Twilight’s first day of study under Princess Celestia’.
Twilight’s eyes went wide as a heavy, crimson blush appeared on her cheeks. She was so lost in her embarrassment, that her body went rigid and refused to co-operate with her mind. Kalanar smiled at the photo as he turned the page.
Before he could, the book was enveloped in Twilight’s aura and pulled from his grip. Twilight pulled the book over to her and hugged it to her chest, still bright red from embarrassment and pouting at the elf.
“Kalanar, these are my private memories, please don’t just nose in them. It’s really rude!” she huffed.
Kalanar gave her a little bow, “My apologies, Miss Twilight. I was unaware.”
The unicorn sighed softly, temporarily forgetting photography and the concept of a photo album was something Kalanar was not familiar with. Given in his world the technology didn’t exist. With a heavy sigh, she clambered up onto the bed and laid down, levitating the book back to the mage.
“Are you sure? I don’t want to pry,” Kalanar asked as he gently held the album.
“Well… it’s just a little embarrassing, that’s all. I don’t know if your parents, specifically your mother, did things to embarrass you. But my mother enjoyed showing her friends, guests, my friends, the post pony, the milk pony, the paper colt… basically anypony she saw her precious little Twilight in the forms of many, many photos from my foal hood.”
Twilight shuddered at the memory of her mother showing her then crush when she was a teen a photo of what her mother, Velvet, described on the page adjacent as. ‘Twilight’s first bubble bath’.
She never looked at the colt the same way after that.
“Well, whilst we don't have the same technology as you do… my mother did have her ways of embarrassing me…”
“Oh? How so?” Twilight asked as the mage sat beside her.
“I’d… rather not say, at least not yet.” Kalanar replied.
“Do you mind if I ask why?”
“Let’s just say… I have some scars…”
Twilight was silent for a moment. “You know… we have professional psychiatrists who can help you deal with any mental and emotional scars you—”
“No no, you misunderstood. I mean literal scars,” Kalanar interrupted, “all over my body, nearly.”
Twilight just blinked at him, trying to process what the hell the mage was even remotely talking about. More importantly, what the hell did his mother do to him?
She decided to not pursue it, at least not yet.
“Well, either way. I don’t mind you looking at the album… I know you're not going to be like Rainbow Dash and start teasing me.”
Kalanar chuckled and gave her ear a soft scratch, something Twilight had come to enjoy and sighed softly, leaning her head a little into his fingers.
“I promise I won’t tease you, Miss Twilight. Unlike Damon or Miss Dash.”
Twilight smiled and scooted closer to him as he started to look at the photos. The unicorn happily, if not slowly at first, giving the elf a little background on each photo. True to his word, Kalanar never once made fun of Twilight, only offering a sentence or two at each photo. Twilight smiled to herself and found herself resting against him, a light blush on her cheeks as she enjoyed his company.
After being told the story behind a photo of Twilight hard at work studying with a mountain of books beside her with an older looking colt, who she informed was her brother, asleep at the same desk. The mage then came to a stop upon turning onto the next page.
Kalanar had seen many things that didn’t phase him in the slightest. He has fought with Black Knights, stared down hulking giants and even killed a colossal black dragon. But nothing could prepare him for the photo on the next page.
The photo was of Twilight, still a filly, wrapped in a blue blanket with a stars and crescent moon pattern to it, snuggled beside a smiling Celestia who had her wing gently covering the filly. Her mane was a little eskew and her ears and eyes were droopy, her cheeks puffy and a light red, as was her nose and in her mouth was a small thermometer. Celestia herself was levitating a large book that had a picture of a white whale on the cover, clearly reading to the sick filly. Despite her obvious illness, Kalanar could tell the filly was enjoying being read to by her teacher.
His eyes cast over to the other page where the photo’s caption was and smiled at the words that he assumed was done by her mother.
‘Twilight’s first fever (Poor little dear had a spell misfire, was sick for a week).’
“Is something wrong?” Twilight asked, curious as to why the mage had stopped.
“Forgive me, Miss Twilight. But you do look adorable in this photograph,” Kalanar replied with a warm smile.
Twilight felt her cheeks heat up from the blush that was threatening to cover her whole face. “W-wha?”
“I believe the phrase Miss Pie used told me was, ‘adorkable’,” Kalanar continued.
The unicorn tried to speak but all that came out was a Fluttershy level squeak as she hid her face in her hooves to cover her blush.
OhmygoshhethinksI’madorable! she screamed in her mind. well… adorkable. But still!
Kalanar was about to ask if she was okay when they heard a muffled bang from behind them ,seemingly coming outside the room. They both turned to see fireworks going off and stared at the display.
“Shall we go outside?” Kalanar asked, raising from the bed and offering his hand to the unicorn.
“O-okay,” Twilight replied, shakily taking his hand with her hoof as he escorted her outside.
Kalanar led the two onto the balcony that stuck out from Twilight’s old room, coming to a stop at the railings. As Twilight rested her front hooves on the railing, now standing just under Kalanar’s shoulder, a series of large explosions covered the sky, making her gaze in wonder.
“Remarkable…” Kalanar said softly, “such a simple concept, yet so remarkable.”
“Fireworks are truly beautiful,” Twilight agreed.
“Not as beautiful as the mare in my company, I must say,” Kalanar said with a soft smile.
“Well, I don’t think that— wait wah?” Twilight asked, pausing mid-sentence trying to figure out if she heard him correctly.
She looked at him for a moment before the mage spoke to her.
“Something wrong, Miss Twilight?” he asked her.
“What… did you just say?”
“I said… ‘not as beautiful as the mare in my company’,” Kalanar repeated with a genuine smile on his face
Twilight felt her heart beating rapidly, her whole head boiling hot as her cheeks flushed red.
Does he like me? she thought to herself
Was he just complimenting me? Oh, buck it who cares. He thinks I’m beautiful! she mentally squealed.
As the fireworks started to settle down, Twilight swallowed a lump in her throat and decided to take a gamble.
“K-Kalanar?” she began, “There’s… something I’ve been meaning t-to tell you…”
“Hmm? What’s that, Miss Twilight?” Kalanar asked, turning to look at her with the smile she had grown to love.
“I…”
Twilight slowly leaned forwards.
“I… I lo…”
This is it! Now or never Sparkles! she screamed at herself internally.
“Kalanar… I-I lo—”
She was interrupted by the room door bursting open and three guards rushed in, clearly alarmed and startling the two.
“Lady Twilight, come quick!
Are you KIDDING me?! Twilight thought, rather than shout it.
“What's the problem?” she asked.
“It’s the Princess. She needs you and Elder Kalanar to come quick, it’s a matter of national security,” the guard replied.
Twilight nodded, cursing her chance had been ruined, “Okay, lead on.”
“I’m right behind you, Miss Twilight,” Kalanar said as he followed the ponies out of the room.
Celestia and Luna sat at the head of the council table where they would hold meetings that affected the kingdom as a whole, rather than in the throne room were talks about Canterlot would he held. Both of the alicorns sat in silence, minds racing with thoughts on how to approach the crisis that now befell on their kingdom.
The door opened, revealing a couple of guards being followed by the elements of harmony minus Twilight, Spike and Trixie.
“Please, everypony have a seat,” Celestia said with a soft smile.
“What’s going on, Princess?” Rarity asked.
“When the others arrive, then I will tell you,” the princess replied.
They didn’t have to wait that long, as the doors once again opened revealing Twilight and Kalanar who quickly made their way to a pair of empty seats.
“Does anyone know where my student is?” Kalanar asked, seeing Damon wasn’t present.
“They will be here shortly, Kalanar,” Luna replied, “the guards will—”
Luna was interrupted as the doors were slammed open revealing a very angry looking Damon being followed by Berry Punch, Colgate and Pinchy who was on her mother’s back.
“Luna! what the hell? You left me to deal with Berry and Colgate by myself?!” Damon angrily said at the lunar princess, gritting his teeth.
“I thought it would be best to… make a tactical retreat before the fireworks ended,” Luna replied with a sheepish grin.
“You teleported the instant I fell down!” Damon yelled.
“Don’t blame the Princess, Damon,” Berry said as she walked past him, “just because you’re a klutz.”
“A klutz with a wounded pride, and bruised bones,” Damon muttered.
“Oh, lighten up, you bag of bones,” Colgate snickered, “we didn’t rough you up that bad.”
“You smashed a plate on my head,” Damon replied bluntly.
“Details, details…” Colgate replied with a wave of her hoof.
“You did kinda slip up by yourself, Uncle bones…” Pinchy said as she clambered into his arms and was picked up.
“If you are quite done?” Celestia asked before turning to one of the guards, “Sergeant, where’s our nephew?”
“I’m not sure, your highness. We can’t seem to find him,” the sergeant replied.
“We’ll have to start without him, I shall fill him on the meeting later,” Celestia sighed.
She waited till the four had taken their seat before the princess then cleared her throat and looked at all of them with a serious expression on her face.
“I won’t beat around the bush, Dorian has broken Discord free of his prison.”
The mares all gasped as the two mages gave one another a quick glance.
“B-but how?!” Twilight said.
“Dorian grew tired of waiting for Damon to do it, so he did it himself,” Luna replied, “we think that Pinkie’s rather random and somewhat chaotic dance routine with Trixie was brought on by Dorian. Though we’re not entirely sure, we think this gave Dorian enough chaos magic he needed to channel into Discord to set him free.”
The group murmured to one another, a little uneased, Pinkie placed a reassuring hoof on Trixie’s and gave her a soft smile.
“Though, we do have a very vague idea of what they are planning,” Celestia said before turning to her sister, “Luna?”
The lunar princess nodded, “So far, we’ve cast some charms that can track chaos magic, hopefully they will—”
“Or, you know. You could just ask us?”
Everyone looked around the room to see who had interrupted them, though from the voice. They knew who it was.
“Show yourself, Dorian!” Celestia bellowed.
As requested, Dorian appeared with a flash on top of the table, giving the rulers a toothy grin.
“Evening!” he chirped.
Almost at once, the guards had drawn their weapons, unicorns horns had ignited with magic ready to attack. Damon put himself in between Berry, Colgate and Pinchy as did Kalanar whose hands were glowing with magic.
Dorian blinked and looked at them all and scoffed, “How rude.”
“Stand down, Dorian. Or we will use lethal force if you try—” Celestia started before being interrupted by the mad god.
“I’m not here to fight, Tia. In fact, I come bearing some sad, sad news.”
He clicked his fingers and Discord across the room in a hospital bed, his face droopy and a comically oversized thermometer in his mouth. Around him were three versions of Dorian dressed in doctor outfits. One in a white lab coat and blue scrubs, one in simple blue scrubs with a bouncy head of hair and a third in green scrubs and completely bald. They were each going over Discord and looking at charts.
“As you can see, Discord is suffering from the devastating effects of a little chaos withdrawled induced fever.”
“Oh, woe is me!” Discord wailed as he forced a long, throaty cough out.
“Such a shame… I don’t think he will be better for at least a day or two…” Dorian said sadly as violins played sadly in the room.
“In this state, I’m afraid we can’t show you our plans, don’t want dear Dissy to miss out do we?”
Before any of them could react, Dorian snapped his fingers, sending Discord and the other Dorians away.
“Anywho! Enough moping,” he said as he produced a small diary, “we can pencil you in for say… three in the afternoon tomorrow at the old mountain cave? Such a lovely place to play games.”
His answer came in the form of a dual blast of magic from Luna and Celestia, who had heard enough. The table exploded, leaving nothing but a smouldering spot.
“Temper, temper. Honestly, rulers these days!” Dorian’s voice chuckled around the room, “Ta-ta! Places to do, things to be… or something like that.”
With that, Dorian’s voice faded away, leaving the group alone in the room.
“What does he mean, ‘plans’?” Twilight asked nervously.
Celestia shook her head, “I’m not sure, Twilight. Whatever it is though, it cannot be good. I’m sending you all back to Ponyville with the elements and a squadron of the finest guards from the lunar and solar regiments. Call it instinct, but I believe whatever those two have planned. It will be in Ponyville.”
“Why’s that, your highness? Damon asked.
“Duh, nearly everything happens there! Don’t you guys read the stories?” Pinkie replied.
Everyone ignored Pinkie for being, well, Pinkie. Kalanar coughed softly as he looked to the Princess.
“Will you be accompanying us, your highness?” Kalanar asked.
“We won’t be. We cannot use the elements anymore due to them being bonded to you six, however, we shall remain in Canterlot incase Dorian and Discord attempt anything whilst you’re distracted in Ponyville,” Luna replied.
Everyone in attendance nodded.
“I’ll have a carriage to take you home immediately,” Celestia said with a nod, “this meeting is over. Good luck, everypony. May the ancestors watch over us all.”
The trip back to Ponyville had been silent. No one really knew what to say or do. Despite seeing some of his power already, none of them knew just how far Dorian was willing to go. Even Kalanar couldn’t give a definite answer, stating that Dorian was one of the gods who was very difficult to read due to his changing attitudes.
The elements had elected to stay over at the library for the night, to keep their receptive elements together. Trixie had also stayed over at the library, after being invited along by Pinkie. Kalanar, before returning to the library, spent a good hour placing charms around the town as to pick up on any chaotic magic.
Damon carried a sleeping Pinchy, who had fallen asleep on the chariot ride home, in his arms as he followed the two mares into their home, quietly making his way to the living room. He flopped onto the sofa, causing Pinchy to murmur in her sleep and snuggle into his chest more. Colgate and Berry slowly and silently climbed onto the sofa and cuddled into him and each other, the skeleton pulling them in closer as Pinchy stirred again.
“Will you be okay tomorrow, Uncle Bones...?” she said softly.
Damon gave her eara soft scratch, earning a little sigh of contentment from the filly, “Of course I will Pinches…”
“Everything will be fine, sweetie,” Berry added, kissing her daughters head a soft kiss, “go to sleep.”
Pinchy yawned again and nodded, snuggling into Damon a bit more, “Night night…”
“Night sweetie…” Berry said with a soft smile.
Colgate smiled softly as well, “Rest well, kiddo.”
“Good night, Pinches,” Damon replied softly.
The two mares quickly followed Pinchy and drifted off to sleep, leaving Damon to his thoughts as to what would happen the following day. He looked down at the three ponies surrounding him and he smiled softly.
“I won’t let anything happen to you guys, or anyone. I’ll do whatever it takes to protect you…”
He yawned softly as he laid his head back against the pillow and slowly drifted off to sleep, hugging his family close to him.
The moon shone brightly in the sky as it watched over Equestria as she slept. A strange sense of peace was felt all over the land as ponies slept with the odd few still awake, going about their night time jobs or tasks.
Near the capital, however, Ponyville slept in a slight uneasy peace. Most of the residents were unaware of what had transpired during the Gala and would not find out until the rumor mill whispers reached them, despite the Princess’ efforts to try and keep the knowledge of Discord’s release a secret.
Not that it would have done them any good, due to Dorian and Discord’s plans for the town the next day.
In a small house near the center of the town, three ponies and a skeleton slept, still close together on the sofa. By now, Berry and Colgate had shifted to lying beside one another in a close embrace with Pinchy still snuggled into Damon’s chest. This was changed, however, as the hollow holes of Damon’s eyes flicked to life, the small green flames that acted as his eyes slowly looked around the dark room.
Without a word, he gently rose up, carefully holding Pinchy to his chest and leant over to where her mother lay. With a quick and careful movement, he maneuvered Pinchy in between the two, smiling for a moment as they subconsciously snuggled the filly into them who could only smile happily in her sleep.
Damon slowly raised his hand up to his forehead and in a slow and careful ark down to his right side, he brought his bony hand down. As he did, his attire from the gala vanished, and in its place were his robes. Satisfied that he was dressed accordingly, he produced a small bit of paper that he had received the night before from his master.
He had received the letter only a few hours ago, informing him of what Kalanar had in store. The elf had used his own magic to track down where the two spirits were hiding and had found their location deep within the Everfree in a cavern of sorts. Not surprisingly, Kalanar wished to hunt them down as soon as possible and prevent them from enacting their plan. No princess’, no elements.
Just the two of them alone.
The skeleton looked over the three ponies one last time before smiling softly to himself. He then whispered under his breath, summoning a blank scroll and a quill before scribbling a note addressed to the three and placed it on the nearby table.
“I won’t let anything happen to you guys…” he whispered before walking towards the door and phasing through it, leaving the three alone to slumber in peace.
The air was chilly, and it took Damon by surprise. The mage chuckled to himself as he walked down the deserted streets.
“If Berry or Colgate were here, they’d probably make a joke about me being cold to the bone,” he muttered.
The cold didn’t bother him that much if he was being truthful. He and Kalanar had been in much colder places for much longer periods of time and he had grown used to the coldness. The cold didn’t bother his master either as his race hailed from the frozen north, giving them an edge over the cold.
As he continued to walk, he walked past the large tree that was situated near the town centre and noted of a presence next to him.
“Morning,” he said.
“And to you,” Kalanar replied as he phased into existence beside Damon, also now wearing his normal attire.
Like Damon, Kalanar had slipped out of the library in pure silence, but unlike the skeleton however, he did not leave any kind of note for the element bearers to find. Less they be foolish to follow him to what could easily be their deaths.
The two continued to walk down the empty streets till they came to the entrance to the Everfree, it was here that Damon stopped and cast a glance backwards towards the town.
“Damon, are you coming?” Kalanar asked without looking back.
Yeah… just…” Damon started but quickly trailed off.
He head the footsteps of Kalanar behind him before feeling his hand rest gently on his bony shoulder. Damon looked at his master from the corner of his eye, seeing the elf give him a look of reassurance.
“I know you’re concerned, my student… but you know why we must do this alone,” Kalanar started.
Damon didn’t answer, letting Kalanar know this was his cue to continue.
“You know what that mad man is capable of when he gets excited. From what I read, as well as what information I could gather from the Princess’. Discord is merely what he is, a trickster. He doesn’t kill… Dorian does.”
Damon hesitated for a moment. Despite part of him wanting to stick to the original plan of everyone joining forces against Dorian and Discord, as the princess’ had wished. He knew that Kalanar was right.
Dorian was known to kill, not out of hatred or spite. But usually without meaning to or from his games going too far. Damon doubted whether or not Discord even knew Dorian had killed, let alone that the mischief never showed true remorse.
“But how can you be this certain he will even be where he claims he will be?” Damon continued.
Kalanar grunted a little as he walked, “Say what you will about the madman, but the oddest thing about him is his sense of punctuality. He is never late nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to.”
The two stepped over a fallen tree trunk as the elf continued.
“And even more oddly, if he says he will be somewhere, such as the cave. Then he will be there.
“I see… lets just get this over and done with,” Damon replied as he began to follow Kalanar as the latter started to walk on again, “but... what if we fail, Master? What if we are bested? And just how do you know he will keep his word?”
Kalanar hesitated in his walking for a moment before he came to a complete stop, “We won’t… we have the father of magic watching over us. And besides… there are things from my youth you do not know of that give me confidence in our success.”
Damon was intrigued by the statement, “What do you mean? What happened in your youth?”
“Let’s just say…” Kalanar replied with an eerily cold tone to his voice, “I’ve met Dorian before, under different circumstances…”
Damon had heard that tone before, and it was one that did not invite a prying curiosity. The skeleton merely nodded and the two began to make their way through the forest, with one thing dominating Damon’s mind.
Protect them at all costs… no matter the price
Twilight yawned as she awoke, smacking her lips as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes and tried to adjust to the sunlight that was seeping in through the windows. She looked around to see her friends were still sleeping. Rainbow Dash was on her back softly snoring, Rarity was laying on an army of cushions, something Twilight was unsure as to how she got them given they weren’t hers, Pinkie and Trixie were laying beside one another in each others embrace and Applejack was no where to be seen.
“So y’all finally awake?” Applejack said as she came out of the kitchen, balancing several mugs of coffee on her back, “Ah hope ya don’t mind, Twi. But I made us all something to drink to help wake us up.”
“That’s fine, Applejack.”
Twilight smiled as she helped the earth mare by levitating the tray of drinks onto her nearby table before taking one for herself along with Applejack who took one for herself.
“How long you been awake?” the unicorn asked.
“Since sun up, ya get used to waking up early when ya work on a farm.”
Twilight nodded as she sipped her coffee, the taste a little bitter but with a hint of sweetness. No doubt a small dollop of the apple families syrup. Something the unicorn had grown a fondness for over the past few months.
A loud snore followed by a snort and a few series of confused sounds drew the attention of the other two mares who looked over to see rainbow Dash, now bolt upright, smacking her lips and blinking in confusion as to where she was.
“Urgh… I hate mornings…” Rainbow Dash mumbled as she sat up, bags under her eyes and a grumpy expression on her face.
“And morning to you to,” Twilight snickered.
“Man… sleeping on cushions isn’t the same as clouds, I tell ya... “ Rainbow passed as she sniffed the air, “I smell coffee, did you make coffee.”
“Here ya go, sugarcube. Ah added a few dolops more of syrup to help perk you up,” Applejack replied as she handed the pegasus a mug.
“Cheers, AJ,” Rainbow said, taking a deep swig of the coffee and exhaling in delight.
“Mmm… what time is it exactly?” Trixie asked as she slowly woke up, rubbing her eyes gently.
“Time to get this down your neck,” Applejack replied, handing the unicorn a mug.
“Thank you… so… if those two do do anything later… what should Trixie do? Trixie may have some magic, but compared to the elements it’s nothing.”
Twilight thought for a moment as Applejack and Rainbow started to rouse the others from their sleep.
“Well, I know it doesn't seem like much of a task. But I think I’d trust nopony else to protect the town as a last wave of defense, should anything happen. And I think the Princess’ are sending some guards to assist in Ponyville’s defense.”
“Trixie thinks that is best, Ponyville would be vulnerable without the elements here.”
“Could this just be a trap?” Rainbow asked with another swig of her coffee, “I mean, for all we know Discord and Dorian could be leading us away from Ponyville to leave it open for attack or something.”
“Ah think you’ve been reading too much Daring Do, sugarcube,” Applejack teased, before looking at Twilight with a little bit of concern.
“Hence why the guards are coming down along with the Princess’, Rainbow. Princess Luna is going to be taking command of the town whilst Princess Celestia, Damon and Kalanar and ourselves will deal with Dorian and Discord,” Twilight replied, easing the mare’s concerns.
“Speaking of the two,” Rarity said as she daintily sipped from her mug, “where is Kalanar?”
Applejack shrugged, “Probably gone for one of his morning walks, fella weren’t here when I woke up.”
Twilight looked over to the clock, reading it as having just gone eight thirty. She bit her lower lip slightly, feeling a strange feeling of worry wash over her. Usually, Kalanar would have gotten up and had a walk around the town by at least quarter to seven. Eight at the latest.
“Maybe… but he usually doesn’t take this long…” Twilight said softly.
Pinkie gave her a warm hug and smiled, “You shouldn’t worry! Maybe he just found and uber awesome new route to take, or maybe he stopped by Berry’s house, or, or—!”
Twilight smiled and put a hoof over her friend’s mouth to silence her friend, who continued to talk albeit muffled still.
“Thank you, Pinkie. But I’m still worried…”
“Worried about your coltfriend, how cute,” Rainbow teased as the unicorn’s cheeks burned red.
“H-he’s not my coltfriend!” Twilight huffed.
“Yet,” Applejack smirked.
The group giggled as Twilight crossed her front hooves in a huff. Their giddy merriment was interrupted by a knock at the door.
“I’ll get it!” Pinkie declared, giving Trixie’s cheek a quick, teasing stroke with her tail as she walked past her, making the mare sigh in contentment.
As the pink mare headed for the door, Rainbow scooted up to Trixie along with Applejack and the former nudged the unicorn.
“So… you and Pinkie… care to explain a lil’?” Rainbow asked.
“Trixie doesn’t know… nor does Trixie care,” the mare replied with a happy yet goofy grin on her face as she stared after Pinkie.
Applejack and Rainbow shared a confused look followed by a heavy and defeated sigh, deciding to just put it down as one of Pinkie’s things.
“Guys, it’s the Princess’!” Pinkie grinned as she bounced back in, soon followed by the said Princess’ and two guards each.
The other five including Spike gave a low bow as the alicorns entered. Celestia smiled as she nodded to them along with Luna before she addressed them.
“Good morning, my little ponies. I trust you slept well?”
Twilight nodded, “We did. And nothing happened during the night either, the elements are still safe.”
As if on cue, the unicorn’s horn briefly glowed as it canceled out a concealment spell that revealed a chest near one of the walls. Spike quickly plodded over to it and brought it over to his friend who then opened it, revealing all six of the elements still safely secure inside.
“Wonderful, now. You all already know of the plan, but we shall go over it one more—” the white alicorn paused mid sentence as she looked around, “where is Kalanar?”
“Out on one of his walks,” Twilight replied, “he should be back soon.”
Something about Twilight’s tone didn’t sit right with the princess.
“I see… does he normally do this?” she asked, a little worried he wasn’t present.
Twilight nodded, “He says it helps get his blood flowing and gets his thinking gears going.”
Celestia looked down at her student before looking to one of her guards, “Go and see if you can find Kalanar. Though I know that he is aware of the plan, I still wish to speak to him and Damon before hoof.”
“Yes, your highness,” the guard replied before taking his leave.
However, just as he was about to leave and the princess was about to return her attention to the others. The door of the library burst open and a frantic looking Berry Punch with a sniffling Pinchy clung to her neck rushed in, followed by a nervous looking Colgate.
“H-he’s gone!” Berry shouted.
“Who’s gone?” Rarity asked.
“Damon… he left a note,” Colgate replied, levitating over the note Damon had left for them only hours earlier.
“I’m scared, mummy… I don’t want Uncle Bones and Kalanar to get hurt…” Pinchy sniffled as tears rolled down her cheeks.
As Berry and Colgate comforted the filly, Celestia quickly took the note in her magic and frantically scanned its contents. Her eyes widened with every sentence she took in before she looked up at her sister and her face took on an expression of anger.
“That blasted fool! What does he think he’s doing?!” she bellowed as she quickly made her way to the entrance of the library, “Sergeant, make ready the troops!”
“As you command, Princess!” one of the guards replied.
“P-Princess?” Twilight asked, her ears flat on her head.
“Sister?” Luna asked, equally concerned.
Celestia stopped as she reached the door and looked back at the group, “Our Plans have changed. Damon and Kalanar have gone after Dorian and Discord alone.”
Kalanar silently exited the treeline followed close behind by Damon. The came out onto a large open plain with long grass that gently blew about in the gentle breeze. It had taken them a couple of hours or so to reach this place, carefully navigating the heavy foliage and tightly packed trees as if the Everfree itself was trying to prevent the two mages from reaching their destination.
Looking up at the sky to see some birds high above them sail by, the elf closed his eyes and took note of the energy in the surrounding area. Analysing it and honing in on it to suit his own personal energy. Damon craned his neck up as he walked forwards and looked up into the sky.
“What time do you reckon it is?” he asked.
Kalanar looked up to where the sun hung in the sky, squinting his eyes as he made the calculation in his head judging it based on the nearby mountain peaks position, “Around… ten thirty I would guess.”
Damon nodded before he looked around the area himself, “We nearly there yet?”
Kalanar didn’t reply, he merely raised his hand up and pointed to a small looking mountain in the near distance, “They’re in there… and I fear they may know we are here.”
“What do you mean?”
A raven landed on a nearby branch and cawed at the two, Kalanar refused to make eye contact with the bird as Damon eyed it with curiosity. Suddenly, the raven’s feathers began to alternate between black and white before it took on an impossible grin. It then squawked loudly and inflated quickly before exploding in an array of colours and confetti.
Only leaving a sign that read, ‘This way to the fun! D&D’.
“That’s what I mean,” Kalanar replied, “come now, we must be quick and not keep our… delightful hosts waiting.”
With a quiet nod, Damon and Kalanar quickened their pace towards the looming mountain, ready for whatever the two tricksters had in store for them.
“Oh, do let me see, Dorian!” Discord’s muffled voice whined as his body shivered with excitement.
“No peeking~!” Dorian replied with a sing-song voice.
The mischief god watched with great glee as Discord’s headless body walked ahead of him, arms outstretched to feel its way whilst his head was concealed inside of Dorian’s cloak.
“You’re no fun!” Discord huffed from the cloth.
Dorian chuckled, “Oh come now, the best surprises in life are the one’s you can’t see! We’re nearly there.”
Discord grumbled as Dorian kept guiding the body every now and again to whatever the destination was. It wasn’t long before Dorian stopped Discord with a friendly trip of the legs, making the body fall forwards with a splat.
“Hey! What was that for?!” Discord snapped.
“We… have arrived!” Dorian announced as he slammed the covered head on its body, removing the cloth to allow Discord to get up.
“‘Bout time to,” Discord huffed.
He pulled out his arms one after the other and gave them a vigorous shake to dislodge the dust collected on them. The draconequus popped his arms back into place as he rested his hands on his hips.
“So what is it you—” Discord asked before stopping mid sentence and staring up with a confused look
“Do you love it?!” Dorian asked, shaking with glee like a child in a sweet shop.
“It’s covered in a large cloth, Dorian,” Discord deadpanned, “I can’t see it.”
“Oh, but you will soon! This, will take care of all our problems! Just think of all the fun we will have with it~!” Dorian giggled as he pulled Discord into a tight shoulder hug.
“Yeah, fun,” chuckled Discord, though a hint of uncertainty in his tone.
Dorian’s trousers then began to let off a loud and irritating ring sound as he pulled out an alarm clock, “Well what’ya know! It would appear it’s time to greet our guests! Seems like an elf and lich were too eager.”
Discord looked at the clock that rather than have a face, had a real time image of Damon and Kalanar walking briskly to the cavern of the mountain they were in.
“Oh I just knew they couldn’t resist and wait for three o'clock! Always nice to have early guests!”
Dorian quickly threw the clock at a wall where it promptly fell apart in a loud clang before he giggled manically and rubbed his hands together.
“Now… let’s wait and greet our two early birds,” Dorian grinned before he snapped his fingers, causing the two pranksters and the creation to seemingly vanish into thin air.
Kalanar and Damon stood at the entrance to a large cave, the darkness on the inside seemingly to beckon the two mages into it. Damon cautiously made an advance towards the darkness but was stopped by Kalanar who put his arm out.
“Wait…”
“What is it?” Damon asked.
Kalanar didn’t respond, he merely let his eyes wander around the entrance of the cave before her picked up a nearby rock and gently tossed it into the cave. The stone bounced a little as it tumbled and came to a stop just a little ways into the cave entrance. Damon looked between Kalanar and the stone, a little confused as to what his master was doing. Kalanar caught his confused look and looked at him.
“I was checking to see if the entrance had been rigged in anyway, can’t be too careful when dealing with that madman.”
“True… but would he really risk having us injured or dead before he greets us?” Damon asked, “even when he sent the ursa to town, he still greeted us… sort of.”
“You have a point…” Kalanar replied, stroking his chin, “it would seem unusual for him to attack—”
At that moment, the stone was suddenly picked up by an unseen force and distorted into a variety of shapes and colours before exploding in a small fireball, the remains gently falling to the ground below. Kalanar looked to Damon and raised his eyebrow, making the lich sheepishly grin at him.
“It was just a thought,” Damon said.
Kalanar shook his head and closed his eyes, his outfit dissolving and being replaced with his battle armor from before as his staff and sword appeared in his hand and on his hip respectively, “Come on, let’s get this over with.”
Damon nodded, noticing a slight change of tone in Kalanar’s voice. With a quick stamp of his boots, his robes shifted to his own armor and weapons before he followed Kalanar inside, both poised with their swords drawn and staves at the ready. The skeleton glanced backwards for a brief moment, feeling as if something was watching him. Seeing nothing, the mage decided it was nothing and returned to follow his master into the cave.
“Of all the insufferable things!” Celestia muttered as she gritted her teeth and briskly made her way to the town centre, ignoring the ponies who bowed to her.
“Sister, wait!” Luna cried as she and the others ran after her.
“There isn’t time to wait, Luna,” Celestia replied as she stopped to face her sibling.
“Just, wait for a second. Please,” Luna pleaded, “just because they went off without thinking doesn't mean you should as well!”
Celestia took a deep breath and exhaled, before sighing and regaining herself, “You’re right, sister… forgive me, I wasn’t thinking properly.”
“Princess, what’s going on?” Twilight asked as she and the others caught up.
“It would seem that Damon and Kalanar have gone to face Discord by themselves,” Celestia replied.
“Why in tarnation would they jus’ go and do something as stupid as that?” Applejack exclaimed.
Rainbow nodded, “Yeah ,that’s so uncool of them! They need our help!”
“Apparently… Kalanar and Damon though otherwise,” Berry growled softly.
Twilight lowered her ears a little, feeling a little upset that Kalanar seemingly didn’t want her assistance or anyone elses.
“Maybe… they had a reason for it?” Colgate suggested, gaining everyone's attention, “I’m just saying, there must be a good reason for it?”
“I guess so…” Luna mused, “It would explain why he made us stay out of the last time Dorian did something.”
“But why?” Celestia pressed, “We knew Dorian from before Discord’s banishment. All he seemed to be was a harmless, if not annoying, prankster. Just like Discord.”
“I don’t know…” Luna replied.
“Look, we need to find them and quickly,” Celestia said, “before something bad happens.”
“Agreed, but how do we even know where they are? We know that Dorian mentioned a cave but there are hundreds of them in the Everfree.”
“If I knew what either of the twos magic aura was, I could track them down,” Celestia said as she looked out to the forest with a worried expression, “but I don’t know what their aura feels like, and I don’t have time to try and hone in on it…”
“Maybe Trixie can help?” the unicorn asked, “Trixie knows the spell that can locate the magic of another unicorn, and Trixie use it to find Damon’s. Seeing as we were connected for a bit, Trixie knows what his magic aura feels like.”
“Good plan, Trixie!” Pinkie grinned and gave her a nuzzle, making the unicorn blush.
“T-thank you, though Trixie will need some help to get enough power to find them quickly. The spell drains Trixie quickly”
“I can help,” Twilight offered.
“As can I, dear,” Rarity added.
“Same here,” Colgate said, “may not be as powerful as you guys, but I still got a bit of magic in me.”
“And me!” Pinchy squeaked, “I can help!”
Berry smiled at her daughter, “It’s nice that you’re offering, sweetie. But you’re still learning your basic magic.”
Pinchy huffed and crossed her legs, grumbling about the unfairness of the situation, “But I want to help!”
“No arguing, madam,” Berry replied.
Pinchy grumbled as she climbed of her mother’s back and looked around, I am going to help… somehow.
Celestia nodded, “It is not needed, I shall lend Trixie some of my power to help her.”
Trixie stared at Celestia and bowed graciously, “A-are you sure, your highness?”
“I’m quite sure, my little pony,” Celestia replied before turning to the others, “I will go with the elements once we have located where Damon and Kalanar are. Luna, you will remain here with the guards in case Dorian and Discord show up here, if they do, tell me through our telepathic link and I shall teleport everyone back to the town. Understood?”
The guards saluted and spoke in unison, “Yes , your highness!”
“We will protect the town with our life if needs be, Sister,” Luna nodded.
Celestia smiled before she looked down to Trixie, “Are you ready, Trixie?”
“Trixie is…” Trixie replied with a little hint of uncertainty in her voice.
“Do not worry yourself, Trixie. I promise you will not be hurt, however it will drain your energy a fair bit. Are you still willing to try?”
Trixie bit her lower lip nervously but nodded, knowing how important it was and closed her eyes, “Trixie… is ready, your highness.”
Celestia smiled down at the unicorn before lowering her horn on Trixie’s, allowing some of her magic to seep into the young unicorn’s own reserve. Trixie winced a little and gritted her teeth as she felt the alicorn’s magic seep into her own. When Celestia removed her horn, Trixie wasted no time and she focused the combined magic of her and the princess’ into casting the spell.
Trixie’s eyes suddenly went wide to reveal they were glowing white, whilst the others watched nervously, the unicorn slipped out of her body in an invisible ghost like state, and shot towards the everfree at speed. She navigated the forest quickly, dipping, ducking and diving under the branches and the fallen trees. The mare soon shot into a clearing that seemed to go on for miles before coming to a sudden halt at an entrance to a cave. It was there she spotted the two mages, adorned in armor and weapons drawn, heaving into said cave.
She hovered there for a moment and studied the location. The mare froze when she saw Damon looking right at her, temporarily forgetting she was invisible to the naked eye. She watched as Damon returned to entering the cave before she felt her mind suddenly be pulled back and she woke from her trance, gasping and sweating heavily. The mare groaned and started to sway.
“T-Trixie!” Pinkie cried in panic, quickly darting over and catching the unicorn before she fell.
“T… Trixie is fine… just t-tired,” Trixie panted, “I-I know where they are, Princess…”
Celestia nodded and tapped her horn gently to Trixie’s head, taking the information from the mare painlessly, “Thank you, Trixie. You should go home and—”
“N-no, Trixie is fine, just need to catch her breath…” Trixie interrupted as she shakily stood up.
“Trixie…” Twilight began,” you shouldn’t push yourself.”
Trixie chuckled softly, “T-Trixie’s been through worse… can’t t-think of an example right now.”
Celestia turned to Luna, “Luna, make sure Trixie is okay. We need to be going.”
“Okay, sister,” Luna replied, turning to one of her guards, “Please escort Trixie to the nearby hospital so she can get some rest.”
“Trixie s-said Trixie was alright, you're highness. Trixie doesn't want to cause a burden.”
“Please, Trixie… for me?” Pinkie replied, nuzzling the mare gently.
Trixie went to argue, but sighed and nodded, “Very well… for you.”
Pinkie beamed and kissed Trixie’s nose, making the unicorn mare blush heavily. Trixie then followed a guard, wobbling a little bit as she made her way to the hospital. Celestia then turned her attention back to the rest of the bearers.
“Are you ready, my little ponies?”
The elements all nodded, along with a few of her guards who were going to escort them.
“Then… let us go.”
Celestia’s horn began to shine and in a flash, Celestia was wearing a beautiful, ornate gold looking battle armor. The elements all gasped and inspected their bodies, finding themselves covered in battle armor of their own.
“What in the world?!” Applejack exclaimed.
“So. Awesome!” Rainbow squealed happily.
“My this is certainly fashionable!” Rarity said as she admired her armor.
“O-oh my…” Fluttershy whispered softly.
Pinkie giggled as she bounced up and down, somehow ignoring the weight of the armor.
“Princess?!” Twilight asked, confused and somewhat startled by the sudden armor appearance.
Luna chuckled, “We had these armors made for you after my… uhm… well return,” Luna nervously said, “Celestia and I had these armors forged and we also enchanted them to appear on your bodies, should we the elements be needed.”
“I meant to tell you, Twilight. But I was too wrapped up in dealing with Luna’s return that it slipped my mind.”
Twilight nodded, still admiring her armor. Like the others, it matched the same general design of the royal guards, save for the face the colouring of the armor was a shade darker than their own fur.
“Alright, good luck everypony,” Celestia said to the guards that remained and to Luna.
“And to you, sister.”
Celestia closed her eyes and the elements, herself and the few guards vanished in a brilliant white light that blinded everyone for as few seconds.
Unbeknownst to the group, there had been one, small extra addition to the teleport, who had taken the opportunity to jump into the magic spell when everyone had been blinded.
“We’d best get home then…” Colgate said.
Berry nodded, “We should. Pinchy, sweetie do you want some—?”
Berry stopped and her eyes went wide, seeing that Pinchy was no longer on her back.
“P-Pinchy?!” Berry called out alarmed.
“Hey, Pinchy?!” Colgate shouted, looking around with the frantic mare.
“What’s wrong?” Luna asked, having heard Berry and Colgate shout and had trotted over from where she was with the guards.
“I can’t find my daughter!” Berry exclaimed.
Luna raised a hoof to calm the mare down, “Has she not simply wandered off?”
“Maybe… she has done in the past. But where would she have gone?” Berry asked worriedly.
Colgate nuzzled her, “I’ll see if she went home, we may not have seen her go past us because we were so focused on the elements.”
Berry nodded, “Maybe, she did seem upset about not being able to help…”
With that, Colgate nodded and galloped as fast as she could to the house. Berry began to carefully trot around the town center, checking everywhere for the filly.
Luna turned to a couple of the guards, “Help her find her daughter.”
“Yes, your highness.”
The two guards headed off to help in the search as the alicorn slowly looked to where Celestia and the elements had been a moment ago.
“Could she have… no… she couldn’t of, we’d have seen her… surely?”
Kalanar and Damon slowly made their way through the long, dark and deathly silent tunnel. The only sound that was being made was their footsteps, which was somewhat muffled due to Kalanar’s magic, as well as the occasional sound of water dripping from a stalactite somewhere deeper within the cave. Neither mage dared to make a sound least they give away their locations, despite fully knowing that the two mischief makers knew they were on their way.
As they rounded a small bend and entered a large, empty area. Kalanar quickly raised his arm up and Damon immediately came to a complete stop.
Something’s coming, Kalanar said to Damon through a telepathic link, be ready…
Damon noded as he gripped his blade tighter. Kalanar’s eyes shifted slowly to his left as he tightened his grip around his stave.
Seconds seemed to turn to minutes. Minutes seemed to turn to hours. Hours seemed to turn into days as the two stood still, bracing for whatever was about to come. Suddenly, there was a bright white flash and Kalanar spun round followed by damon and both shot a blast of magic from their staves, Damon’s fire twisting around Kalanar’s ice to hit its target.
Their targets screamed as their magic bounced of a shield and ricocheted into the cave walls, exploding on contact. Behind the barrier stood six startled element bearers, eight startled guards and one startled, but irate looking, princess. The two groups stood staring at one another, seemingly confused for a moment. Kalanar as to why the group of ponies had come, and the others for why they had been shot at.
“Oh… it’s just you guys, we thought—” Damon started before being interrupted.
“What in the blue blazes are you doing here?!” he snapped, Kalanar’s eyes narrowed as he stood from his attack stance,
“What are we doing here?! Celestia spluttered, “what on earth were you two pig headed fools thinking of?! Going after Dorian and Damon alone!”
“I have a very good reason for that!” Kalanar shouted.
Celestia snorted, “Oh please, do tell me why!”
Kalanar growled softly, “Actually, I don’t have to explain anything to you! You should go back to Ponyville right this instant, we’ll deal with our problematic deity.”
“Actually,” Celestia snapped, “it’s only half your problem! Discord is our responsibility, just as much as Dorian is yours! You need us.”
“No I don’t! You blasted old horse!” Kalanar shouted jabbing a finger into her armor, “you’re in way over your head!”
“I’ve ruled for over a thousand years, elf! I have seen my fair share of combat!” Celestia retorted, jabbing her hoof into the elf.
By now, the two were face to muzzle, glaring angrily at the other for ruining their respected plan. Damon, the elements and the guards just stood there watching.
“How did you ever know we were here?!” Kalanar shouted.
“Oh! Oh!” Pinkie said as she bounced in her armor, “Damon left Berry a note!”
“You did what?!” Kalanar roared, now turning his anger to Damon, “I specifically told you to not tell them our plan!”
“I didn’t want Berry, Pinchy and Colgate to worry…” Damon meekly replied, rubbing the back of his skull.
“I’m surrounded by imbeciles!” Kalanar roared again.
Twilight winced a little and fought back to hold her tears as Celestia stormed up to the mage, roaring in her canterlot voice.
“Give me one one reason why I should even think about not punishing you for disobeying me!” Celestia said.
“Because Dorian kills people for fun, Discord doesn’t!” Kalanar shouted, loud enough to make the cavern rumble a little and match the canterlot voice, “I’m not going to allow that damned abomination of a twisted god hurt anypony in this world so long as I draw breath! If that means going above your orders to ensure he doesn't kill anyone then damn me to hell!”
Celestia stared wide eyed along with the others as the elf glared at her, panting a little. Dorian… had killed? This was news to her. Sure he was a bit… odder than Discord. But he wasn’t a killer, was he? Had he done things in Cyrium that neither Discord or herself were aware of?
“I am not going to let him kill anyone under my watch… not again…”
“Again…?” Celestia asked in a soft whisper.
Kalanar remained silent, turning away from the group, “If you must remain… don’t get in my way. Dorian is mine…”
Something about his tone of voice worried Damon and scared the others. It didn’t sound the normally calm and confident elf they had come to know, more like a voice of a being who desired to have revenge.
Before Kalanar could say anything, a slow clap began to fill the cavern followed by a low chuckle.
“Well… I must say, that was very entertaining!” dorian chuckled as he materialized in the cavern.
Kalanar and Damon quickly prepared themselves as the others turned to face the mischief god. Dorian grinned down at them as he seemed to stand on something in the middle of the cavern, he seemed to be twitching a little as if he was eager. A look that sent an eerie shiver down the ponies spines.
“Well, isn’t this lovely? all of us, save for Luna, here at last. And early to, how nice of you!” Dorian giggled, “Discord will be with us shortly, he had to take care of something. Probably stuck on the bog again, you know those draconequusi.”
Dorian spotted Kalanar, a curious grin formed on his face at seeing the newcomer.
“And who do we have here?”
Dorian peered down at Kalanar for a moment before snapping his fingers and appearing near him, Kalanar quickly thrusted his stave forwards and shot a blast of ice at Dorian who defected it with a back hand.
“You look… familiar…” Dorian said, his voice unusually serious.
Kalanar merely responded by charging at him and swinging his sword down, at the same time, several builders ripped from the wall and shot towards Dorian at speed. Dorian quickly summoned his cane and blocked the incoming sword blow, before splitting his arms into four and shooting a mixture of black and white magic energy at the boulders, obliterating them.
The elf grunted as he struggled to push down on Dorian’s sword, the two glaring at one another. Damon and the others were about to attack when Kalanar shouted at them.
“No! He’s mine!” His voice was deep and it rumbled, reminding them of how an elder dragon spoke.
“Master?” Damon asked, now genuinely concerned.
He had never seen Kalanar like this before. His eyes were getting lighter in colour, and his teeth were sharpening by the second. The look of blood lust and anger and hatred dominated his gaze as he remained locked with Dorian.
“Hmmm, so familiar… interesting,” Dorian mused before suddenly using his extra arms to punch Kalanar in the gut, making the elf double over and drop his sword.
Dorian grinned before spinning his cane around, turning the end into a large warhammer and smashing Kalanar in the side.
“Fore!” Dorian cried.
Kalanar cried out as he was sent rocketing into the cavern wall, causing rock and dust to explode out of it.
“Kalanar!” Damn cried, engulfing his stave and sword in fire before charging at Dorian.
Before the guards, elements, Damon or the Princess could do anything, they were sealed in a small magical dome.
“Dorian!” Celestia barked, “you can’t hold us that easily!”
Doran shrugged as his two spare arms shrunk back into his normal arms, “Tis not my barrier.”
The group slowly looked over to where Kalanar had slammed into the wall and took a step back in alarm. Kalanar was clinging to the wall, his head near the bottom and look up to Dorian, but he had changed, having started a transformation spell.
But this one was different.
His armor buckled in places and areas where his robe was had ripped slightly and revealed row upon row of white scales. His face was covered in the same scales, only his nose, mouth, eyes and the skin around it remained skin. Sharp fangs now replaced his teeth and his eyes were now ice blue with a black reptilian slit and claws had emerged from his hands and toes, which had since sliced through his boots.
“K-Kalanar…?” Twilight whispered as she and the others backed up in fear.
“Haha! Brilliant!” Dorian cried with glee, “been a while since I fought with a shapeshifter user, and one who can become a dragon no less!”
The group just stared at Kalanar. he had done a transformation spell before, back when Dorian had corrupted the ursa major and turned into a giant ice bird. But, this wasn’t as quick as the other transformation. Nor did it seem graceful, more so it seemed to be fueled by a desire for revenge.
For blood.
Dorian’s gleeful joy was cut short as he pouted a little
“But you know, it’s bugging me...” Dorian said, twirling the hammer back into a cane, “I think we have met. Have we?”
“Once…” Kalanar hissed with a deep and primal growl, “A lifetime ago…”
“Wait…” Dorian muttered, stroking his beard, before he suddenly snapped his fingers and grinned happily, “I got it! You’re Daloreth!”
With a roar that shook the cavern, Kalanar suddenly shot off from the wall, running on all fours like a beast at speed at Dorian. The god had no time to react when Kalanar swiped a arm at him, ripping across his chest and sending the madman bouncing along the floor before crashing into the opposite wall.
“Do not call me that, filth! I do not go by that name anymore! That man died a long time ago…”
“Master, what the hell is he talking about?!” Damon shouted, his fear being suppressed for his concern at the increasing amount of anger his master was radiating.
“Why it’s simple, my boy!” Dorian said as he stood up from the rubble he was in.
“What is?!” Celestia demanded.
Dorian chuckled as he dusted off the rubble coating him, a dangerous and malicious grin on his face as his body radiating with his magic. Ready for a fight.
“Daloreth was once one of my devout and loyal followers.”
The silence in the cavern was heavy, not a single sound seemed like it could pierce through it. Everyone from the group, Princess Celestia, the elements and Damon stared at Kalanar with their eyes wide with shock and horror. No one moved as Kalanar glaring pure hatred towards Dorian.
“Master… you… you were his follower?” Damon asked softly, not believing what he had heard come out of Dorian’s mouth.
Kalanar didn’t answer, his eyes kept shifting between the group and the madman. Instead of answering, he let out a roar and charged Dorian on all fours before he pushed off from the ground and spun, drawing twin blades made of pure ice and brought them down on Dorian.
Dorian grinned as he twirled his cane and blocked the incoming attack. With a quick movement he swung his leg up and caught Kalanar in the stomach and kicked the mage up into the air, giggling as he watched Kalanar somersault backwards before landing on his feet and growling at him.
“Don’t be rude, Daloreth. Answer them.”
“Don’t call me that!” Kalanar roared.
He discarded one of the blades where it vanished before he slammed his hand down, hard, onto the ground making it crack before a column of earth shot out from under Dorian, momentarily catching him off guard. Kalanar used this opportunity to fire a torrent of wind from his free hand that slammed into Dorian, sending him hurtling backwards and into the wall with a loud boom.
The elf then quickly ran at Dorian, this time on his legs only, and roared out as he continued to repeatedly blast the impact zone with a variety of different elemental magic.
Twilight shook softly behind Celestia, her eyes filled with tears as she watched Kalanar unleash his rage upon the madman, never having seen anyone or anypony seemingly filled with this much anger before. Not even Nightmare Moon was this furious when they fought. Damon cursed to himself as he tried to teleport out to no avail, finding his Master’s magic signature preventing him from casting his teleportation spell. The skeleton quickly spun on his heels to look at Princess Celestia.
“I can’t cast my teleportation spell, Kalanar’s got a charm blocking it out. Can you get us out of here, your highness?”
Celestia’s horn lit up before she looked at Damon with a sour and slightly panicked expression.
“My magic’s not responding either, just how powerful is Kalanar?” Celestia asked with clear worry in her tone.
“Very…” Damon replied, “he is the youngest mage to reach the rank of Elder… I have no idea how powerful he really is.”
Damon looked back over to Kalanar with a concerned expression, But he is still a mortal, and mortals can hold only so much magic at a given time… if he is using that much power to hold us in, he could exhaust himself fast...
Kalanar growled as his appearance became more and more draconic, his skin was now fully covered in white scales and his head had started to form into a dragon’s snout. A tail had begun to snake out from behind him, the spines made of deadly sharp ice that had a slight, chilly mist forming around each one. His hair was ragged and unkempt, partially covering his right eye. He lept at Dorian who attempted to leap out of the way, only for the mage to grab him by by his leg and slam him into the ground over and over.
All the while Dorian cried out with an eerie and insane laugh that clashed with the sounds of his body being slammed into the ground, filling the chamber with what sounded like a mixture of torture and comedy.
Kalanar then opened his mouth and a jet of blue flames burst out, straight into the madman’s face. When the flames stopped, Dorian was no longer beneath Kalanar and was standing to the side, a large grin on his face that seemed to be impossible to physically be on a face of his size. His clothes were a fair bit burned but aside from that. Dorian appeared to have no injuries on his body.
“Ho boy!” Dorian cried out with glee, “I haven't had this much fun in a fight since—”
Before he could finish, he was struck by a swipe of Kalanar’s clawed hand which sent him flying up into the air, somersaulting backwards. Kalanar raised his hand up and brought it down to the ground. As he did this, a large hand linked by what appeared to be dark metal blocks that was covered in intricate and strange looking indented patterns, including an eye on the palm, glowing an eerie ice blue. In following with Kalanar’s hand, the metal blocked hand slammed down onto Dorian and into the ground below. Kalanar lifted his hand up, and in so, the metal hand rose up, revealing Dorian slightly embedded in the ground but still seemingly unhurt.
“Okay, I’ll give you that one,” Dorian chuckled whilst spitting out a tooth. “I guess I—”
His sentence was again interrupted as the metal hand came smashing down on top of him once more. When it was lifted, Dorian was more embedded into the ground and his expression had soured a little bit.
“Okay, can you—”
Again, he was interrupted as the hand came crashing down on him, Kalanar snarling as he glared at the spot where Dorian lay in the ground.
As the hand rose up again, Dorian groaned a little and tried to sit up, “Okay, just stop—”
He was silenced once more as the hand was slammed on him.
“Stop—”
The hand slammed him again.
“Stop!—”
The hand slammed him again.
“Okay!That’s it!”
Before Kalanar could slam the metal hand down on him again, Dorian’s fists, albeit it slightly large than normal, shot out from the ground below and uppercutted Kalanar directly under his chin. The impact made the mage lost his focus and was sent hurtling into one of the walls.
Dorian slowly stood up, revealing his arms sticking into the ground as he gave an annoyed scowl at Kalanar as the mage slumped to the floor. The hands retracted back down into the ground followed by his arms pulling out and returning to their normal size.
“That was just plain unfair, Daloreth… now, I’m going to have to punish you for that.”
Damon and the others watched in horror as Kalanar was punched by Dorian, watching as the madman dusted himself down, a disturbing scowl on his face. But this wasn’t what was worrying him. Ever since the fight had started, Damon could feel Kalanar use up more and more of his magic. Despite his age, his body was still mortal and could only house so much magic before his energy would be depleted, and if that happened.
Kalanar would collapse and would have a high chance of dying from magical exhaustion.
The mage began to look around, trying to think of a way to disable the charm that was preventing them from escaping via teleportation. He placed his hands on the barrier and lowered his head.
“Damon, what are you doing?” Celestia asked.
“Something stupid, but if it works, you need to get Dorian away from Kalanar and calm him down and restrain him—”
“What do you mean, restrain?!” Rainbow spluttered, interrupting Damon, “have you not been paying attention?! He’s turning into a bloody dragon!”
Applejack nodded in agreement, “Ah have to agree with Dash there, Damon. Ah don’t think we could do that.”
“It does seem like a tough thing to pull off, Damon,” Twilight added.
Pinkie pouted, “We should at least try, Twilight.”
“I-I think so too…” Fluttershy whispered in agreement with Pinkie.
As the bearers began to bicker amongst themselves, a boom interrupted them as Kalanar threw a large ball of blue fire at Dorian that exploded, sending him flying back before his arms transformed into large bat wings that kept him hovering in the air.
“We don’t have time to debate this! We need to do this otherwise Kalanar will die!” Damon shouted.
“What… what do you mean?” Twilight asked.
“Princess Celestia knows,” Damon replied. “She once told Kalanar that if a unicorn drains themselves of magic they can collapse and fall into a small coma as they recover their energy.”
“You mean Kalanar will collapse and fall into a coma?” Rarity asked.
“No… he could kill himself from magical exhaustion. A body can only hold onto so much magic before its drained and the users life force is used in place of the energy, meaning if we don’t subdue Kalanar now. He could end up draining himself of his power and start to use his life force.”
“But you said Kalanar was aware of his limits,” Celestia replied.
“Look at him!” Damon snapped, “He’s enraged and isn’t thinking straight! That’s why we have to do this!”
The elements and the princess were about to speak when Twilight ran forward and charged her horn, ready to attack.
“I’m with you, Damon. I’ll hit Dorian with all I have!”
“Ah shoot, if Twi’s willing, then so ahm I!” Applejack said as she stood by Twilight and scraped the ground with her front hoof, ready to charge.
“I’m not going to leave my friends hanging!” Rainbow said, flying up beside the other two, “Even if it is a stupid idea.”
The pegasus ignored the looks of her friends as one by one the other three elements joined Twilight.
“Very well, what’s the plan, Damon?” Celestia asked as she and her guards joined the elements.
“I’m going to try to absorb the magic of the barrier, at least, the charm part that is preventing us to teleport. As soon as I do, the guards need to protect the elements and you need to hit Dorian as hard as you can, your highness, as you’re the only one out of you lot that could do Dorian damage.”
“Hey!” Rainbow protested.
“Twilight, you and the others try to snap Kalanar out of it. He may be enraged, but he should still see you as friends and not foes.”
“Wait, what?” Rainbow asked.
“You ready?” Damon asked, ignoring her.
“Damon, are you sure this will work?” Twilight asked.
Damon chuckled, “I have no idea!”
He then cried out in pain as bright yellow energy flowed into his arms, his body began to violently twitch as he gritted his teeth and persevered through the pain. Suddenly, the barrier disappeared and Damon fell to the ground on his back, smoke rising from his body.
“Damon!” Fluttershy gasped.
“Go! GO!! Damon shouted.
With a slight bit of hesitation, the group charged forwards. Celestia took to the air and blasted Dorian with a huge beam of magic, sending the startled madman across the cave and slamming into the wall.
I absorbed more than I should have… Damon groaned as he stood up. I don’t think I’ve got enough power to fight fully.
“No!” Kalanar roared, “Stay out of this, he’s mine too—”
Before Kalanar could answer, Rainbow shot into him at great speed and knocked the wind out of him, sending him to the ground as the girls and guards ran over. Kalanar shoved Rainbow off before being tackled by Applejack followed by Pinkie. Kalanar roared and shoved Applejack off with all his might, sending the farm pony tumbling over the ground, her armor clanking as she did. Pinkie clung on with all her might as the mage tried to pull her off, his eyes flashing a dangerous glare at her.
“Don’t make me use force!” The elf cried out.
Pinkie refused to budge, making the mage all the more angrier. A wave of air suddenly blasted out from him, sending the mares and guards shooting away from him. They cried out as they were shot back, giving Kalanar the chance to attack when he felt something grab him by the chest and hold on tightly.
“Kalanar! Please!”
Kalanar looked down to see Twilight looking up at him, on the verge of tears, having teleported before the blast of air had got her.
“Miss Twilight… move,” Kalanar said coldly.
“No!” Twilight said defiantly.
“Back down, this isn’t your fight, Miss Twi—”
Kalanar stopped mid sentence when Twilight smacked him across the snout with her hoof. He blinked in surprise and looked down to see Twilight, tears streaming down her face and scowling angrily up at him.
“Please! Stop! I don’t like seeing you like this! I can’t just stand by and watch my friend throw his life energy away and lose control!” she pleaded, “You know you need us to help you beat Dorian, please calm down! We need you and you need us.”
Kalanar processed her words in his head. As this was happening, he felt the rage in his heart start to fizzle away.
“... I need you…” Twilight whispered softly as she clung to his body.
The elf stared down at her and looked at his claws, before realizing what he had done. He closed his eyes and his body began to revert to its normal self before he slumped to his knees and wrapped his arms around Twilight, holding her close to him.
“Oh, Miss Twilight… I’m so sorry… I just lost it, I let my rage—”
“You can explain later… right now we need to defeat Dorian. Together.”
Kalanar looked into her face before smiling and rising up, “Yes… together.”
“But we are going to talk later, Mister.” Twilight added, giving him a stern look. “Now, let’s go help the Princess!”
The looked over to see Dorian and Celestia locked in a beam battle. Celestia’s white and yellow beam was slowly pushing Dorian’s black and white beam back. As they were about to join in on the fight. Dorian suddenly flapped into the air on his wings, dodging her beam that exploded behind him and snapped his fingers making a ‘T’ with his hands.
“Time out!” he cried.
“What?” Celestia spluttered, confused and startled by his sudden outburst.
“I nearly forgot!” Dorian grinned, “I was too pre-occupied with Daloreth that someone here isn’t meant to be here!
Dorian pointed a finger at Damon before snapping his fingers and making the mage vanish in the same way as the guards.
“Damon!” Kalanar shouted.
“Relax,” Dorian smirked, “I only sent him out the caves. My dear friend Discord merely wanted to meet the fellow! Said something about something in him interesting him, I don’t know. Discord’s odd like that.”
As the elements grouped behind Celestia along with her guards and Kalanar took a place beside the alicorn, Dorian cracked his hands and grinned before his skin started to slowly darken and his eyes slowly turned white as his form began to deform slightly and grow in size.
“Now… where were we?” he asked, a secondary deep tone underlying the his normal tone.
Damon found himself outside the cave, confused and blinking against the suns harsh rays. He looked around his surroundings before he realized he had been teleported outside of the cave and quickly rushed to go back in, only to have the cave suddenly blocked by a large wall of what appeared to be large blocks of chocolate. The mage stumbled back a bit, still a little run down from absorbing the charm on the barrier.
“What the—?”
“Ah, you made it!” A voice cheerfully cried behind him.
Damon spun on his heels and came face to face with the creature that he had been told about. Discord himself. Discord was grinning from ear to ear as he floated in the air, his paw behind his back and a cup of what Damon assumed to be tea floating beside him. Damon immediately punched his fist out, shooting a cone of fire at Discord.
Discord merely teleported before the flames could hurt him and appeared nearby, sipping daintily at his drink. Damon snarled and swung his hand up, making a spear of earth rise up and collide with the draconequus who yelled out in pain before splitting into two Discord’s.
“Well that was not very nice!” One of the Discord’s said.
“I quite agree!” The other replied.
Damon coughed slightly and groaned, Damn it! Draining that barriers damn near drained me
“Now, can we talk like two grown ups or do I have to put you on the naughty step?” Discord asked as his two halves reformed before a long staircase appeared beside him, the words ‘naughty step’ on the bottom one.
“What do you want to talk about?” Damon sneered.
“Why, I wish to make a deal with you!” Discord grinned from ear to ear.
Damon blinked, “A deal?”
“That’s right!” Discord replied, giving Damon a huge thumb up.
Damon eyed the chaotic creature with suspicion, “And why, exactly, would I make a deal with you?”
Discord gave him a mock gasp as he held his paw to his chest and choked back a sob, “D-Damon, I’m hurt!”
Damon merely glared at the draconequus who in turn snorted at the mage.
“Okay, the real reason is because of this!”
Discord reached behind him and pulled out a bundle of pink fluff. He snapped his talon and the fluff transformed into a small filly being held by the scruff of her neck.
A filly Damon was very close to.
“Pinches!” Damon shouted.
“Uncle Bones!” Pinchy cried, her eyes on the verge of tears.
“Put her down, Discord,” Damon growled, his hands engulfed in flames as he glared at the draconequus.
“Why? I found this lil cutie wandering all by herself in town with no guardian. Luckily, good old uncle Discord found her and is going to keep her very safe from harm.” Discord replied, hugging Pinchy closer to him, making the filly all the more terrified.
“I’m warning you, Discord.” Damn said with a cold tone, “Put my niece down…”
Discord pretended to think, stroking his beard which made it stretch out before snapping back into place.
“How about no? You crazy mage bastard,” he replied. “You think I’m stupid enough to hand over my bargaining tool?”
“Bargaining tool?” Damon asked.
“Remember, I mentioned a deal?” Discord asked.
He snapped his talons and a small screen appeared, showing the conversation the literally just had regarding a deal.
“Oh, they never capture my good side,” Discord tutted.
“Really trying my patience Discord… what is this damn deal?!”
“Well, you see, Damon…” Discord began and snapped his talons.
From somewhere nearby, a set of violins that hovered near him started to play sad and slow music as the draconequus suspended Pinchy in a ball of magic before he threw his arm over his face in a melodramatic way.
“I’m not at my full power to take over Equestria, those blasted elements could very easily defeat me in this state! And bless his little socks for that display at the Gala to get me free, but Dorian wasn’t able to give me nearly enough chaotic energy for me to try and make Equestria my own little playground again.”
He then turned his head to look at Damon with a large smirk on his face.
“But you see, Damon… there’s something inside you.”
“What are you driveling about?” Damon asked with great irritation.
“Dorian doesn’t seem to see it, but I do. Inside you, Damon. There’s great power, power that just reeks of chaotic energy. And as the only wielder of such magic in Equestria... I think I have the right to that power.”
The draconequus snapped his talons and Pinchy appeared back in his grip, struggling to get free.
“So, here’s the deal Damon. You’re going to give me that power in exchange for the little snookums.”
“Just like that?” Damon scoffed, “Forgive me for not trusting you.”
“My good sir, I am a draconequus of my word! And besides, you don’t want something bad to happen to dear old Pinches here do you?”
“Uncle Bones… I’m scared…” Pinchy whimpered.
“Don’t worry, Pinches. I’ll save you.”
“Tick-tock~!” Discord said in a singsong voice.
Damon glared at the draconequus as Discord chuckled, trying to think of anyway he could go about it without having to give up his power. But as he thought, Discord increased his grip on the little filly who cried out in pain, making Damon flinch and growl.
“Fine…” Damon replied, knowing he had little to no choice in his current state. “take my power…”
“No Uncle Bones, you can’t!” Pinchy screamed.
“Oh do hush up, the grown ups are talking,” Discord snapped.
The filly grunted and glared at the draconequus. In a single desperate moment to protect her uncle the filly somehow managed to fight her fear and she bit down hard on Discord’s thumb
Discord yelped in pain as Pinchy clamped down on his thumb as hard as she could, drawing some blood out of his paw. Discord swung his paw outwards and Pinchy went flying as Damon watched in silent horror, the filly slamming into a nearby tree head first and letting out a pained yell as a crack filled the area before she fell to the ground.
Her body not moving.
Damon stared at her body, feeling time slow down as every sound faded into nothing around him except for the crack of Pinchy’s head hitting the tree. As he stared, he felt his entire frame become as cold as ice. A strange feeling of energy began to stir within him as a burning rage began to build.
“Stupid little filly,” Discord muttered as he sucked on his thumb, “now, as I was saying—”
Discord paused as he felt the wind kick up and the sky started to darken. He looked over at Damon. The mage was staring at the spot where Pinchy lay, his face frozen in shock.
“I say, old sport, you okay?”
Damon didn’t respond. Instead, he slowly rose up to his feet, his head hanging low as the winds kicked up around him. Making his robes and the nearby branches and leaves blow violently about. The wind started to pick up speed as a low boom of thunder rumbled above them. Discord nervously took a step back, his eyes never leaving the mage. Discord was about to speak but stopped when he noticed Damon slowly rise his head.
The mage’s skull was now covered with rotting flesh that clung to the bone, his robes started to become darker in colour as they rotted in several places revealing more flesh covered bones. Discord’s eyes watered as the stench of decay hit his nostrils like a freight train and had to hold back the urge to vomit. Damon’s green flames in his eyes then suddenly turned a crimson red before he spoke spoke in a deep, cold voice that sent a chilling shiver down the draconequus’ spine.
Discord was interrupted as Damon shot a blast of wind at him. He roughly slammed into the ground over and over as he bounced along it before slamming into a tree with his back. He let out a strangled cry of pain as the tree buckled from the impact of the crash.
Wincing, Discord looked up only to be met with Damon standing mere inches from his body. The draconequss’ eyes went wide as he stared into Damon’s, the red flames piercing right into his very soul. Discord was able to to duck and roll out of the way just in time as the mage slammed his fist into where his head was, causing the tree to explode into millions of splinters.
With a surprised gasp, Discord snapped his talons and teleported away, realising how dangerous the situation was getting. However, to his horror, he wasn’t teleporting. Panicking, Discord began to rapidly snap his talons over and over, trying desperately to teleport away. However, each time he did so, nothing would happen.
“W-What?!” Discord spluttered. “Oh, that is just not cricket!”
The draconequus came to the realization that Damon was somehow preventing him from simply teleporting away. He felt the air around him become cold, as if he was trapped in ice. Swallowing a lump in his throat, he looked up to see Damon slowly start to walk towards him, each step he took making the clouds above darken as Discord felt the rage coming from Damon. He now had two options.
Run. Run away the old fashioned way as fast as he could and pray to the ancestors he could somehow outrun the skeleton.
Or he could fight. And pray that he could stop Damon.
He decided the former was the best thing for his health.
“Well as much as this has been fun, but would you look at the time!” Discord smiled sheepishly as he looked at his arm, which was covered in dozens of watches of all shapes and sizes, “I really must be going, ta-ta!”
Discord, with the help of what magic he could use, suddenly flew like a bat out of hell into the forest, flying so fast that the trees bent slightly from the sudden rush of wind.
Damon meerley stopped in his tracks as he glared down at the draconequus. A shadowy mist began to form around his body, swirling around the mage’s body before it had fully engulfed him. Damon let out a horrifying screech that sounded animalistic and demonic, as if all the creatures of tartarus itself had awoken, and launched himself after Discord, using the shadows to propel himself at speed.
Berry paced about her living room as Colgate sat on the nearby sofa. It had been well over half an hour since Pinchy had gone awol and Luna had assigned several of the guard that had come with the her and Princess Celestia to search Ponyville to see if they could find any trace of the filly. Berry and Colgate had wanted to go with them, but they were told that they should remain at home just in case Pinchy turned up there.
“I’m starting to get worried, Colgate,” Berry said as she glanced up at the clock.
“I know, hun,” Colgate replied, “I’m sure she just went off to the park or something to calm down. She was a lil peeved she couldn’t go with the others.”
Berry nodded, “You’re probably right… but still, I can’t help worry.”
Colgate got off the sofa and nuzzled the mare’s neck softly, giving her a reassuring smile, “I know, hun. I know.”
Berry smiled back as she returned the nuzzle, “Thanks, Colgate…”
“Now, how about I make us some tea whilst we wait, okay?” Colgate suggested with a soft smile.
“That sounds wonderful,” Berry smiled as she sat down on the sofa.
Te mare watched the unicorn enter the kitchen and the second she did, her smiled faded to a frown as she glanced back up at the clock with worry.
“Where are you, Pinchy… ?” She whispered softly.
“You know… I remember your soldiers used to be made of tougher stuff. Guess a thousand years of bugger all happening changes that,” Dorian tutted.
Celestia gritted her teeth and glared at the mad man, her mane disheveled and her breathing ragged. It had been some time since she had fought like this and it was showing on her. Behind her, all of the guards ponies lay unconscious, their armor battered and dented.
“Though I do find it amusing that these mares are still kicking. Showing the guys that girl power, eh?”
The elements looked up with varying degrees of expressions. Fluttershy, Pinkie and Rarity all had looks of fear on their faces, and were standing behind the other three. Rainbow and Applejack both had expressions of anger as they glared back determinedly at Dorian, using all of their will to try and hide their fear. Twilight, looked up with awe and a mixture of curiosity and worry.
Dorian saw they mares looking at him and grinned, “What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue? Well… I soon will!”
He chuckled as he rolled over, his human form gone entirely. In it’s place, a large feline monstrosity, the size of a house easily dwarfing the ponies. His body covered in black and white fur adorned with a jumble of black and white shapes, zigzags and lines. His eyes, one white with a black slit and the other black with a white slit, leering down at the group as his sharp grin curled up and almost around his whole face.
“You will not harm my subjects, Dorian!” Celestia shouted, “You will be defeated!”
Dorian purred loudly, “Cute. Very cute, but it’s going to take more than words to defeat me.”
The cat grinned his eyes squinted down at the alicorn, “Amuse me, Celestia…”
The alicorn winced a little as she kept herself barely standing up. As soon as Dorian had transformed, he had fired a blast of magic at the group. They had been caught off guard and unable to block it. However, Celestia was able to use her body as a shield to prevent the other from being hit. Because of this, she felt the full effect of the energy blasts effects, which was one of Dorian’s favorite tactics. An energy draining spell. Whilst he was unable to drain the alicorn’s magic as she was more powerful than he was, he was able to sap the energy from her body, rendering her unable to cast high level magic without pushing herself to extreme exhaustion in the process.
Seeing their Princess badly hurt, the guards had charged at the mad man, only to be instantly backhanded into the cavern’s wall and knocked out, much to the delight of Dorian.
As Celestia readied herself for a fight, she felt something touch her back lightly and saw Kalanar standing beside her.
I have a plan she heard Kalanar say telepathically, I’ll distract him, as it’s me he currently wants to play games with. You need to channel the rest of your magic into the girls to power the elements of harmony enough to take Dorian out in one shot.
Will it work? She asked him.
I think so. But you will only get one shot, so make it count.
Celestia nodded as Kalanar smiled before turning to the feline.
“You want to play a game, Dorian?”
“Game? Oh I do love games!” Dorian replied, rolling onto his back with a grin, “What shall we play? Backgammon? Checkers? Mahjong?”
Kalanar smirked as Dorian suddenly let out a yelp as his body was slammed into the ground by one of Kalanar’s giant summoned stone hands creating a crater in which the hand covered up.
“I was thinking of ‘pet the kitty’…” Kalanar replied.
The stone hand began to rumble before two white beams of light burst through the palm, destroying the hand, as Dorian crawled out of the hole with a frown on his face.
Before Dorian could retort, Kalanar pushed off from the ground and into the air suddenly, looming over the madman and twisting his body, transforming into a large ice dragon and landing on top of Dorian. Dorian Cried out before he was able to roll over and latch onto Kalanar, sinking his claws into the scales easily causing Kalanar to let out a roar of pain.
Dorian pinned Kalanar to the ground before he opened his mouth. A ball of white and black energy began to form as he forced Kalanar to remain still, aiming the energy at his head. Just as he was about to fire, Kalanar was able to get a claw free and struck Dorian across the face, scratching deep into the madman's face causing it to bleed and his head to suddenly snap to the right where he let loose the built up energy. The ball of energy slammed into the wall and obliterated it and kept on going until it finally faded, revealing a hole that led outside to the forest.
Dorian growled as he pushed off Kalanar and floated back into the air, raising his claws up and slashing the air repeatedly, sending several shock waves towards Kalanar. The elf roared out and shot a blast of blue fire that stopped the shockwaves, causing a second explosion to echo through the cave.
“You’re not playing fair, Daloreth!” Dorian whined, “you’re supposed to take the hits like a good follower!”
Kalanar smirked up at the madman, “I’m happy to disappoint you, then,”
Kalanar, crouching slightly, suddenly burst two wings from his back and with an almighty flap, he launched into the air quickly, swiping with his own claws at Dorian. Dorian vanished just as the claws were about to clip him and appeared above the mage, his back legs kicking down and sending Kalanar into the ground with a loud boom. The impact sent a large dust cloud into the air as Kalanar roared out in pain.
Wasting no time, Dorian quickly descended to the floor and slammed on top of the downed dragon, laughing with a gleeful, maniacal tone as he repeatedly stomped on Kalanar. After several stomps, only for Kalanar to suddenly roll out of the way and slam his tail onto the ground hard. As he did, two large rectangles of earth ripped up from the floor and slammed together, with Dorian in the middle.
Dorian suddenly appeared on top of the two earth pillars as Kalanar slammed his hands together and growled before several pillars of ice ruptured form the floor and shot towards the madman. Grinning, he let out a cackling miaow as he dodged the incoming pillars, prancing about as if he was in a ballet. Dorian then swung his body full circle and used his tail to send out a crack of lightning straight towards Kalanar. The mage used his wing to shoot into the air, avoiding the lightning as it struck the ground and exploded.
Not wasting his time, Kalanar slammed his hands together and the spines along his back extended and sharpened. He then tucked into a ball and began to rapidly spin in the air until he was nothing but a blur.
Dorian watched with amusement, though he was more interested in the fact that Kalanar was in a ball shape, thanks to his current form.
Kalanar suddenly blast towards Dorian, much faster than the madman was expecting and slammed right into him, forcing Dorian along the ground and making him yell in surprise as the spines bore into him, trying to break the flesh. Growling, Dorian used all his strength to grab Kalanar, stopping his rotation before he opened his mouth and shot a blast of white energy into the mage, sending him straight into the opposite cavern.
Growing loudly, Kalanar fell to all fours and slammed the ground. Dorian looked around as the floor rumbled before several tree roots ripped from the ground and tried to grab the madman. Dorian cackled in delight as he broke apart, his individual body parts weaving in and out of the roots attacks. He would use his floating paws to swope every now and again at the roots and destroy them.
“Not bad, but not good enough!” Dorian laughed.
Kalanar hissed at Dorian before his eyes shone slightly and the roots sprouted dozens upon dozens of brightly coloured flowers. Dorian watched with curiosity as the flowers bloomed bigger and brighter, purring as he tilted his head. Suddenly, the flowers’ petals opened out and a yellow gas like substance spewed from them, catching Dorian off guard and causing him to start choking.
“W-what?!” Dorian spluttered.
“You may be a demigod, Dorian,” Kalanar started, “But your body is still an avatar. A mortal avatar.”
Dorian growled as he fells to the grouch, choking and gasping for air as his body began to revert back to his human form, his hands around his neck as he tried to desperately get some air into his system. Dorian had forgotten the risks of using an avatar to appear in Equestria, and was paying for his carelessness.
D-damn! He thought, It’s a paralyzing toxin!
“What’s going on, Princess?” Twilight asked.
“Even though Dorian is a demigod, he is unable to manifest into our plane of reality in his demigod form, just as he cannot do so in Cyrium,” Celestia replied without taking her eyes off the battle. “He has to use an avatar, a willing host who allows the demigod to possess him and use his body as means to interact with our world. However, this comes at the cost of having his power reduced significantly, as well as all that comes with having a mortal host. Such as being susceptible to toxins and physical injury.”
Twilight nodded as she processed the information before Celestia moved behind the girls.
“Alright, everyone get ready, it’s time to finish this!” Celestia commanded.
The elements nodded as they closed their eyes and levitated slightly off the ground, their respected elements beginning to low as Celestia lowered her horn and poured all of her remaining magic into the girls, giving them a boost in power.
As Dorian became rigid, heavily breathing as the toxins slowly dispersed along with the roots and flowers. Kalanar slowly approached Dorian, his body shifting back to his normal appearance. Dorian struggled to look up at the elf as he gritted his teeth.
“W-well played, Daloreth… are you going to finish me off then? Do I get a final word, a final cigarette? Phone a friend?” Dorian chuckled.
“I’m not trying to kill you,” Kalanar replied as he stood above the madman.
“Then, what?”
“I’m was just distracting you.”
“What?”
“Now!”
Dorian’s eyes went wide as Kalanar vanished and he saw the others a few feet away from him. In the fight with the mage, he had somehow completely forgotten about the others and had been forced near to them, meaning at the range he was, there was no way he was going to avoid the attack. He cursed himself for not investing in a better avatar, one that could withstand the effects of the toxin.
“Oh… poop.”
A rainbow colored beam slammed into him at the speed of light, causing him to let out a cry of pain as the magic surged through him and engulfed him in a rainbow light that forced Kalanar, Celestia and the others to shield their eyes.
When the light faded, they expected to find a statue of Dorian. However, they found Dorian lying on the floor, groaning as smoke rose from his body.
“B-But how… he should be stone!” Twilight spluttered.
“It would appear,” Celestia said, “Dorian has had his magic syphoned by the elements. Why, I do not know. But right now, he doesn't have the magic to be a problem.”
She trotted over to his form, wincing a little as she touched her horn to his forehead. As she did, her horn lit up and around Damon’s right wrist a metal band appeared. Celestia panted as she cancelled the magic and felt her legs nearly give out. Kalanar quickly rushed to her side and let her use his body for support.
“Are you okay?” He asked.
She nodded, “I-I’m fine, his energy draining spell is quite powerful and has done a number on me. Been awhile since I felt like this. I’ve reached my limit pouring a seal into that metal band… Dorian won’t be able to use the majority of his power unless a certain requirement is met.”
Kalanar nodded as he examined the unconscious madman’s form. Celestia could feel the mage’s desire to strike at Dorian, possibly to kill him and she stepped forward shakily, resting a wing on Kalanar’s back.
“We don’t kill, Kalanar,” Celestia said, “The elements have seemingly spared Dorian for some reason, maybe he may have his use yet in the grand scheme of things I do not know. But we will find out why, so please. Have faith in me.”
“I’m not too happy that Dorian isn’t in stone... “ Kalanar muttered, “but if he was to die, I doubt the other Gods would be too happy that the equilibrium would be destroyed.”
He was silent for a moment before he sighed heavily and looked at the Princess, “Alright I’m going to trust you on this, please don’t let my faith in you be broken”
Celestia nodded, “He along with Discord were good friends of mine and my sisters,” she replied before looking away a little somber “Till that day…”
“What day?” Kalanar asked, catching her last line.”
“Another time,” Celestia replied with a wave of her hoof, “We need to return to Ponyville and find out what’s going on.
“But why?” Twilight asked, having been examining the elements and Dorian, trying to make sense of things, “Why would the elements not turn him to stone?”
“Maybe he’s needed later to save Equestria?” Pinkie replied.
“Why in the hay would he save Equestria? He just tried to destroy us!” Applejack replied.
As the elements began to bicker about why dorian had remained as he was, Celestia looked away as she thought to herself. She couldn’t understand why he was turned to stone like Discord was all those years ago. Perhaps, like Discord, Dorian had a bigger part to play in Equestria? Only time would tell.
“Come on, let's—”
Celestia stopped mid-sentence as her eyes went wide, a shiver running down her spine as she felt her body tense up and become filled with dread. She looked towards the open hole and stared out into the forest.
“Do you feel that, Kalanar?” She asked.
Kalanar looked in the same direction as Celestia, feeling the same sudden overwhelming sensation fill his body
“This isn’t good…” Kalanar replied.
“What’s what?” Rainbow replied, “The hay is going on?!”
Twilight suddenly shivered softly as she finally felt the same sensation, “Th… that’s not normal magic…”
Kalanar gritted his teeth as he felt the dark magic fill the area, coming from the forest. They could all see the clouds in the sky in the distance start to turn black.
Damon… Kalanar thought.
He quickly exited the cave via the hole created by his battle with Dorian, followed closely by the others. Once outside, the mares gasped at the destruction ahead of them. Several craters dotted around the Everfree ranging in various sizes, trees were uprooted or destroyed and flames dotted around the area. Fluttershy suddenly let out a loud gasp and pointed to the right of the group, near where the mouth of the cave was.
“Look!”
The all looked and saw the body of a small pink filly they knew all too well. Pinchy. Wasting no time, Kalanar raised his hand and teleported Pinchy to them carefully, holding her in his arms as he checked her over.
“She’s okay, just a little cut on her forehead and she’s unconscious, we should get her too—”
“Uncle Bones!” Pinchy suddenly cried out as she woke up, “Don’t give Discord your magic!”
“Pinchy!” Twilight cried out.
The filly blinked and looked around, confused as to why the elements of harmony, Princess and Kalanar were with her. She then noticed the destruction and let out a soft whimper.
“What’s wrong?” Kalanar asked.
“Uncle Bones was here with me… and so was that meanie Discord,” she began, “h-he kidnapped me and was forcing Uncle Bones to give him his magic or he would hurt me. I bit his thumb and was thrown away and after that I don’t remember anything… my head hurts.”
Suddenly, a screech filled the forest, sending a cold shiver down everyone's spines. It sounded neither animalistic nor human, rather more inhumane as if something had awoken. Pinchy cried out in fear and hid her face inside Kalanar’s robes as the others each showed similar signs of fear.
“We need to get back to Ponyville, now!” Kalanar shouted.
Celestia nodded as Kalanar channeled his magic to allow her time to recover, he teleported himself, the elements, Celestia, the unconscious guards and unconscious Dorian away.
Discord panted as he flapped his wings as hard and fast as he could, his ears splayed back against his head as he ducked and weaved in and out of the trees. A shriek sounded behind him, getting closer before a bolt of energy shot past him, narrowly missing him by mere inches and collided with a tree, causing it to explode in a large ball of flames. The draconequus came to a screeching halt as he swerved to avoid the fireball and continued to fly through the forest.
This isn't good, he thought to himself, I can’t shake him!
Looking behind him, he gritted his teeth as he saw the large swirling shadows gaining on him, the two red flames in the center fixed onto him as the trees were obliterated by the lacerting shadows. Rolling onto his back as he flew, he sprouted a second head that kept its gaze forwards whilst the other focused on the shadows.
“Keep going!” The head looking towards Damon commanded.
“Aye! Aye! Cap’n,” the second head replied.
As he flew by them, several trees were highlighted in yellow and violently ripped out of the ground and thrown at the shadows in order to try and slow Damon down. Damon’s shadows whipped out of him and sliced at the incoming trees, reducing them to fire wood as he raced after Discord.
With gritted teeth, Discord focused his magic into his paw and ripped open a portal, reaching inside he pulled out a large pack of playing cards before sealing the portal up. He quickly opened them and took out the cards before beginning to frisbee them at Damon. The cards shot towards the mage, screeching as they did and slicing through the trees like a knife through butter. Damon let out an ear piercing screech which was followed by a shockwave that shot out and hit the cards, causing them to fall to the ground the instant they were touched.
Cruising, discord suddenly took a right and circled around behind Damon before the mage could react.
Discord then focused his magic into his paw and gripped the wrist with his talons, holding the paw up directly behind him. Sticking his tounge out in concentration as he focused, using none of his digits as a sight, he let out a barrage of yellow orbs that screeched down the forest towards the shadows. A huge explosion rocked the forest as a huge ball of flames roared from the impact zone, spreading out and incinerating the nearby trees. Wasting no time, Discord charged up his magic before firing a single, huge ball of energy that whizzed into the inferno, causing the already large ball of flames to explode as the ground shook violently, sending destroyed trees and earth into the air.
“I think we got him!” Discord said to himself.
The head piloting the draconequss screeched their body to a halt as both heads looked to where the explosion happened. Taking a tentative step forward, Discord approached the explosion zone as the flames subsided and gave way to a pillar of smoke that slowly rose into the sky. The draconequus peered over the edge of the huge crater where Damon lay in the center. His robes back to their normal blue and tattered, his bones no longer bearing rotting flesh.
“Huh... that was easy,” The first head said.
The second head nodded, “I agree. Ah well, let’s just take the magic from him and go see how Dorian is doing. From the feel of things, he’s let his inner beast out.”
“Always hated that form of his, gave me the—AARRGH!”
Discord suddenly cried out in pain as something pierced his lower half. Looking down he saw a small spear of shadows rammed inside of him on the right side. He let out a choked gasp as he felt the spear push through him and out the other side, his eyes wide in shock. The second head vanished as a small trickle of blood leaked from his mouth. He slowly looked up to where Damon was, seeing the mage still on the floor. However, his robes had started to fade to black and the shadows had begun to wisp around him again, with a single spear of shadows connecting the two together. Discord watched as Damon’s body, still limp, started to float into the air as the shadows violently wisped around and eventually began to envelop him again.
Realizing he hadn’t much time to get away, and that this was no longer a game, Discord grabbed the shadow spear and winced in pain as he slowly pulled it out of him, hissing loudly as blood started to leak from the wound. With a final cry of pain, he removed it from his body, clutching his wound with his talons. As the shadows took over Damon’s body, Discord took off into the forest as quick as he could, panting as he tried to create a large enough gap between him and the mage and to think up of a new battle plan.
He poured magic into his wound to try and heal it, but something was blocking him from healing fully, as if his magic was being rendered utterly useless.
What is this magic inside him?! He wondered as he zigzagged through the trees.
He suddenly felt as sharp pain in the left side of his body as something collided with him, sending him into, and through, a nearby tree. Crying out in pain as he rolled along the ground, he looked up to see Damon already near him, having seemingly closed the gap between them.
Without hesitating, Discord pushed himself up and twirled his paw, highlighting several trees around him that suddenly ripped out of the ground and transformed into large wooden knights. Each one armed with various weapons. Damon floated and watched, his shadows dancing around him as the wooden knights advanced.
The draconequus gritted his teeth as he kept waving his paw, struggling to hold onto his magic as he felt his body become a little woozy from his wound. Suddenly bursting out of the ground around Damon, several large black roots with crystal thorns quickly wrapped around the skeleton, constricting and holding him tight. The mage remained motionless as the roots held him in place as the knights readied themselves just incase he broke free.
Grunting, Discord raised his paw up and down, making the roots violently lurch back and forth, slamming Damon into the ground over and over again, seemingly stunning the mage. He kept this up several times before he reached out with his talons and growled.
Now or never!
Summoning all of his power, Discord shot out a blue and black beam of magic that hit Damon square in the chest. Damon cried out in agony as the shadows began to slowly retract back onto his body and down Discord’s beam of magic. Discord winced as he continued to drawing on Damon’s magic, sucking the shadows closer to him. He could feel his own magic start to give way as he fixed all of his power into drawing Damon’s.
It was a risky move, as it would leave him defenceless for a moment. But he didn’t have a choice. He needed to do it now, he wasn’t going to get another chance like this. The extraction would drain him of his own magic, but it would be worth it to consume the chaotic energy inside of Damon.
As the shadows reached his talos, Discord’s eye shot open and his eyes shrank to the size of pin pricks as Damon suddenly vanished in a puff of smoke.
A-A fake?! NO!
Discord then turned around to see Damon nearby behind him. He immediately began to backpedal away and flee as his wooden knights rushed the mage. Just as he was about to run, he was thrown forwards by an explosion behind him, hearing the knights get blown to smithereens. Before He hit the ground, he felt his right arm get grabbed and saw the shadows engulfing his paw. The draconequus was then violently pulled up and over, slamming into the ground over and over as Damon’s shadows beat him into a pulp. He yelled in agony as he felt his bones breaking from the sheer force. His vision began to blur in and out as he struggled to remain conscious. The draconequss was scared, scared he was actually going to die.
Discord cried out in pain over and over as he felt his joins begin to crumble under the beating. He tried to break free but had no strength left in him, his magic all nearly gone thanks to the failed extraction. Damon slammed him one more time into the ground before releasing him.
The draconequss lay on the floor, wincing in pain, his limbs and wings broken and bloodied. Shakily and slowly, he rolled his head over to see Damon looming over him. The mage raised an arm up and the shadows burst from behind him and soared up high into the air, arcing into a sharp point. Discord’s eyes widened with horror as Damon brought his arm down, his hand pointing to Discord’s chest. Specifically where his heart was situated.
With a shriek that sounded throughout the whole forest, the shadows careened downwards, twisting as they did, heading straight for Discord. Suddenly, there was a massive blast of smoke, just as the shadows crashed into the ground , sending earth into the air and uprooting trees.
As the smoke cleared, Damon looked down to see that Discord had vanished, only his right arm remained.
For what seemed like an eternity, the mage stared at the limb. It appeared that Discord had been destroyed. However, Damon could sense the draconequus was anything but, and was no longer in the forest but rather back in Ponyville.
He had gotten away.
He had gone unpunished.
He… was not dead.
The shadows vanished for a moment, leaving the mage by himself. Several seconds passed by until he let out a scream that sounded neither animalistic nor human. Something snapped inside of him as he let his rage loose.The ground around him ruptured, throwing earth into the air as a huge array of shadows shot out of the earth as the sky rapidly darkened. The shadows slammed into him, consuming him as his body began to contort before he shot up and then back down into the ground, burying deep within the earth.
Making a beeline for Ponyville.
“What on Equestria is going on over there?!”
“Princess! Please tell us what’s going on!”
“Are we in danger?!”
“Look at that explosion, everypony panic!”
“Please, everypony calm down! Panicking won’t help the situation at all!”
Princess Luna lowered her ears a little as she watched the chaos that gripped Ponyville. Ponies ran amok in fear as they watched several explosions and roars rumble from the Everfree.
Sister… where are you?
There was a bright flash of light as Kalanar and the others teleported into the square. Luna quickly rushed to Celestia’s side and used her body to prop the older alicorn. Several guards rushed to the aid as well, helping their fallen comrades towards the hospital. Luna noticed Dorian’s unconscious form, as well as the magic sealing metal band on his arm and shone her horn brightly. Channeling her magic as chains bound themselves around Dorian, hugging his body tightly and glowing with her own blue magic.
“Guards, take Dorian to the guard barracks and hold him there. He will not pose a threat in his current state with mine and my sister’s magic sealants on him. But do not let him out of your sight!”
“Your highness!”
Several guards took Dorian away from the square, briskly making their way towards the local barracks to detain him as the lunar princess turned her attention back to her sister and friends.
“What happened, sister?” She asked.
Before Celestia could explain, a loud scream interrupted her.
“Pinchy!”
“Mummy!”
Kalanar put Pinchy on the floor here she scrambled towards her mother, who was running towards the group with Colgate in tow. The filly tackled her mother who wrapped her in her hooves, clinging tightly to her as the filly sniffled and sobbed.
“I was so worried about you!” Berry said.
“M-Mummy, Discord kidnapped me! He tried to make Uncle Bones give him his magic!”
Berry cooed at her daughter and comforted her as she stroked her back, Colgate soon joining her as the three held one another closely.
Just then, a second flash of light filled the square and Discord fell to the floor, crying out in pure agony. Celestia and Luna gasped seeing the beaten form of Discord lying there. The draconequus looked up at them and they all could see that there was no longer mischief in his eyes, no evil intent.
Just pure fear.
“O-oh my!” Fluttershy gasped as she stared wide eyed at Discord.
Discord slowly got up and winced, clutching his right side, covering where his arm used to be and took a few steps forwards, wincing each time. Luna stood her ground and readied herself for an attack. However, Celestia raised her wing a little, her eyes filled with concern and worry.
“Discord… ? What happened?” She asked softly.
Discord chuckled, but she could tell it was filled with an underlying level of fear, “I’ve messed up, Celly… big time. I had to perform a sacrifice spell. My arm for my ability to escape. But that’s not important. W-we need to leave. Everypony. Now!”
“I don’t understand, what’s going on?” Luna asked.
“There’s no time to explain!” Discord snapped, his tone serious and uncharacteristic, “we all need to leave now otherwise we’ll be destroyed!”
“Destroyed? How?” Twilight asked.
Kalanar suddenly appeared before Discord, not caring for his injuries as he gripped the draconequss around his neck causing Discord to cry in pain, “What. Have. You. Done. With. Damon?!” He growled.
“Kalanar!” Celestia shouted.
Discord choked as he tried to speak, but the ground began to violently rumble, causing everyone in the vicinity to struggle to keep their balance and Discord to struggle until he was free of Kalanar’s grip.
“Oh no… it’s too late…” Discord whispered.
Before anyone could reply, the ground exploded as a large, cluster of shadows ripped from the earth before taking a form.
“Uncle Bones?”
“Yes, Pinches?”
“Are there any monsters where you come from?”
Damon blinked as he looked up. Pinchy was beside him on the sofa, looking up at the skeleton with a childlike curiosity. He turned his head to the other side of the room where Berry was setting up the table for dinner. The mare looked back at Damon, as if to remind him to be careful with answering the little fillies question.
The skeleton looked back down to Pinchy and tapped his chin, “Well… yes, I’m afraid there are, Pinches.”
“Oh…” Pinchy replied, looking away a little from the skeleton.
Damon frowned a little as he ruffled her mane, “Why’d you ask?”
“Well… I thought that maybe Cyrium was like Equestria, peaceful. But you have monsters there, so how could it be peaceful?”
Damon smiled softly as he picked her up and held her to his chest, “There are always going to be bad mages, Pinches. It’s just how life is. Did you know that there are monsters in Equestria?”
Pinchy gasped, “Really?”
Damon nodded, “Mhm.”
Everyone looked up at the creature in frozen shock and fear. The shadows had contorted into the form of a giant, undead snake that loomed over them, towering over the tallest buildings in town. The body of the monster was decaying in various places, revealing rotting flesh and rotten bones as well as the remains of black, cloth like material that fluttered upon the wind.
The ponies quickly became aware of the stench of death that was filling the air, causing some ponies to gag and choke as the disgusting stench filled their nostrils. As the body rose up higher and higher, the flesh gave way to shadows that continuously flickered about quickly as if it was a raging fire. Jutting out of the shadows on either side of the body were two large arms made of rotten bone and flesh, the shadows dancing in between the bones, connecting them to the main body.
But what terrified the ponies the most was its head.
“Then… how come I don’t see them?” Pinchy asked, tilting her head.
Damon paused for a moment before he chuckled and grinned at her, “Because Uncle Bones keeps them at bay!”
Damon then yelped as he felt a smack to the back of his head, looking over as he rubbed the spot to see Berry standing beside an armchair, having thrown its pillow at him..
“Don’t lie, Damon,” Berry scowled.
Pinchy giggled, “Yeah! Or you tail will catch fire!”
“I don’t have a tail, Pinches,” Damon replied, booping her nose.
Pinchy scrunched her snout, “Oh yeah…”
There was a few seconds of silence as the two mares went back to sorting out the table before Pinchy spoke up again.
“You won’t become monster… will you, Uncle Bones?”
In the center of the shadows was a large humanoid skull that the shadows partially hid the top of like a hood of a cloak, putrid rotting flesh dangling all over the face.. Four horns emerged from the skull, two on its head and two on its chin. The two on its head jutted out to the sides before curving inwards, before curving upward and reaching a tip that pointed towards the heavens. The lower two were smaller and curved downwards before curving up and ending in a sharp point that stuck outwards. The skull’s sockets contained two, bright red orbs of fire that extended out of the sides of the monster’s sockets, piercing into the soul of anyone who was unfortunate to lock onto them. From where they stood, the ponies could see two sets of teeth in the monster’s mouth. One on the outside that consisted of large fangs and a row of smaller ones on the inside.
“You won’t become monster… will you, Uncle Bones?”
Damon looked down at the filly who looked back at him. He could see that the filly was legitimately concerned, he could see it in her little eyes. As Berry watched, Damon leant down and pecked the top of her head before he smiled and brought her closely to his body in a protective cuddle, the filly nuzzling into him happily.
“I will never be a monster, Pinches… I promise.”
A silence befell the town, not a single sound escaped anyone save for the sounds of the monster’s breath escaping its body and the wisps of shadows dancing around like a crackling fire. of the monster growling softly could be heard until the abomination’s eyes locked onto the cowering form of Discord. The abomination then landed hard on the roof of a nearby house, partially destroying its roof, sending debris flying as it clung to it. Lowering its head only to arch it backwards, it let out a horrendous demonic screech that rippled throughout the town, echoing as if two voices raged within it’s blackened soul.
Pinchy stared with her eyes wide and pupils the size of pin pricks up at the monster, frozen with fear as Berry Punch felt a single tear roll down the side of her cheek
