Twilight just wanted to through a nice party for Fluttershy's birthday, unfortunately thing dont seems to go her way.
On the day of Fluttershy's birthday, Twilight has the idea to through a large party as a sign of appreciation to the kind mare, not Pinkie Pie, no need for shock. When she goes to check on the preparations, she finds that things aren't going as planned, big shocker. To make matters worse, Twilight soon discovers that the party preparations are the least of their problems.
It was a bright day in the town of Ponyville, and an even brighter day in the home a young sorceress. From the opening doorway of large house, crafted within a tree, their walked the lovely pail skinned young women with dark-purple hair and a violet and hot-pink streak running down one side of it, dressed in a tight purple blouse and short white pants. Her left arm had a small purple horn coming out of the top of her wrist, and on her bare shoulders showed the mark of a star-like symbol. “Perfect,” she said, staring at the large cake she held in her hands, “this is definitely the perfect cake for Fluttershy’s birthday.” She started to walk out of the house and towards the town. “Hey twilight, wait up,” said the voice of a young boy coming from the house.
“Come on Spike, we have to hurry,” Twilight responded as the boy ran out. A short, young boy, with short-spiky hair to match ran up to Twilight’s side, dressed in a purple button down shirt, grey cargo pants, and a pair of dark purple boots.
“Me? You’re the one that spent three hours deciding which cake ‘looked’ the best for the party. Do you even know what flavor you chose?” Spike said.
“Of course, it’s a blue raspberry-apple crumb cake. I just know that every-pony is going to love it.” Responded twilight
“If you say so, well bye,” he started to walk away.
“Hey, Spike, where are you going?”
“I… just thought that Rarity could use a little… um… help, is all”
“Getting the statue?”
“Right, that thing is pretty heavy. I thought that she could use a little muscle,” Spike flexes to show of his ‘muscle.’
“Hmm… alright, meet me back at Ponyville hall before Fluttershy catches on.”
“Right, no problem,” Spike heads off to find Rarity while Twilight continues to Ponyville Town hall.
As twilight walked into the town hall, she stopped suddenly and looked around in shock. “What in Equestria,” she said, seeing that the entire hall was still only a group of chairs and desks when it was suppose to be decorated for the up coming party. “What’s going on, the decorating should have been done a long time ago. Pinkie!” Twilight yelled, “Pinkie, where are…” “Surprise!!!” a loud shout came from directly in front of Twilight causing her to jump and fling the cake into the air. “Oh no,” she held out her left hand and the horn attached began to glow with an indigo aura. The same aura appeared around the cake as it halted in mid-air and floated back to her hands.
Twilight let out a sigh of relief as she looked towards the source of the ‘surprise;’ a girl who looked about Twilight’s age and had a similar small build. She had curly hot-pink hair, a matching pink shirt with the picture of three balloons on it and rolled up sleeves showing off the same mark on her shoulders; short tanned pants; and white slippers over blue and white stripped socks.
“Pinkie, what are you doing?” Twilight asked
“Well duh, I’m practicing my ‘Surprise’…” she yelled again, “…for the party today.”
“(This again) Pinkie, I thought that you were going to decorate the town hall for the party? Don’t you think that is a little more important right now?”
“Of course, but I have plenty of time for that.”
“Pinkie, that party starts in five hours.”
“Really? Time really flies when you’re SURPRISE-ing”
“Since when do you forget a party?”
“Forgotten party!? Where!? Which Party!?”
Twilight didn’t bother answering in fear that if she tried, she might just go crazy. “Yo, Pinkie Pie,” another voice came from farther in the Town hall. A thin tan skinned girl with a medium build came out of the back door and flew up to the girls. This one had rainbow colored hair with brown goggles over them, a white under shirt, jean pants, and a jean jacket with tares on the shoulders showing her mark of a cloud with rainbow a lightning-bolt coming out. She didn't wear shoes, but instead had a small, but strong, set of wings on both of her ankles. “I have a better job for you,” the girl said as she hovered next to Pinkie.
“Oh hay Dashie, do you have something that you need me to do? If you do, just say the word and I’m there. I guarantee that you are not going to find any pony more ready for this than me, I’ll be all-like…”
Dash puts her hand over Pinkie’s mouth so she could get her own words out. “Alright Pinkie, now this job is really important. I need you to go find Fluttershy and make sure she doesn't come to the Ponyville Town Hall for anything until we are ready for the party. Can you do that?”
“I’m on it,” Pinkie stands at attention towards Dash, “now I just need to find her.”
“That’s the easy part, because she’s right out there.” Dash Points out one of the halls windows toward another girl outside.
Just as Dash said, outside of the building walked a slender girl with a large build and very long light-pink hair, wearing a pail yellow dress with a frilled top and no sleeves, to show off her three butterfly mark, and a long short-cut bottom skirt. Just like Dash, she had no shoes and a set of wings around her ankles, but they looked much weaker than dashes. She looked like she was looking for something.
“Dear Celestia, what is she doing here,” Twilight shouted.
“Well Pinkie, you have your mission,” said Dash
“I’m on it,” Pinkie responded as she headed out the door while the other two just waved her off. Pinkie quickly appeared in front of Fluttershy, spoke a few words and dragged her away.
“Well that should keep her busy for a while,” Dash said with a boastful smirk
“But Rainbow Dash, how is the Town hall supposed to get decorated now?” Twilight gestered to the still un-decorated hall.
“Don’t sweat it egghead, as soon as I’m done with my part, I’ll get this place decorated in no time. After all, who could get it done faster than me?”
“(The pony you just sent out to stall Fluttershy, that’s who) Alright then,” Twilight puts the cake down on one of the near by tables, “but wait, what about the food? Why is that not here yet?”
“Hey don’t look at me, go check with AJ about that. She should still be at Sweet Apple Acres.” Rainbow flew fly back through where she came. “I had better get back to work. Good luck,” She flies out of the room.”
“(What work is she talking about? I just told her to get the present,)” Twilight pushed the thought to the back of her head as she began towards Sweet Apple Acres.
A few moments later, Twilight finally arrived to a large farm, Home to apple trees as far as the eye could see. Near the core of the farm, where a large-red barn stood, a single female farm worker could be seen near one of the trees. She was a slender thing with tanned skin and a large build, similar to Fluttershy’s, and arms and legs that were extremely toned. She wore a white shirt under her brown vest that showed off her three-apples mark, a brown skirt and boots, and of course, her signature Stetson over her long-blond hair, tied back in a pony-tail.
She started kicking the side of a tree, causing all the apples above to fall into a group of bins underneath with a freakish amount of precision, when she spotted her good friend walking up to her. “Well howdy Twi’, what’s up” the farm worker said.
“Howdy Applejack; I need to ask you something.”
“Yeah…” she hit another tree with the back of her fist causing one more apple to fall right into her open hand, “…about what?” she took a bite.
“Well… by any chance do you remember the big party for Fluttershy? You know the one that’s today?” Twilight urged the question.
“Can’t wait for it”
“Right; by any chance, do you have the food that I asked you to prepare ready yet. We should probably get it to the hall soon.”
“Shoot Twi’, no worries. I got the food started early today, just take a look.” Applejack pointed to an area just outside of the barn house where a small red-haired girl and a well built orange-haired man were setting up a small table of food. “We got your apple pies, apple fritters, the works,” Applejack said with a sort of pride in her voice.
“Good," Twilight said while starting to calm down a bit, "so the rest is inside right?”
“Nope, that’s all I got for now,” AJ’s face hadn’t changed
“What! Applejack, there are going to be a lot of ponies at this party, we’ll need a lot more than just that.”
“No worries, I’ll get to makein’ the rest as soon as I finish with the apple-bucking.”
“AJ, couldn't the work wait until after the party?”
“Sorry Twilight, but we’re behind now as is. If we don’t get this done today, a lot of these apples could go bad before we even get a chance to get them off of the trees. No worries; I’ll have plenty of time after words.”
Twilight looked up at the sun and noticed that it was already in the center of the sky, there was really not that much time left. “Alright, I’ll leave it to you then, just don’t forget when the party is alright,” Twilight said with noticeable worry.
“Don’t sweat it, I’ll remember. Hey Big Mac, Applebloom” Applejack yelled over to her bother and sister near the table of food, “get that food over to the Town Hall for me will ya? The rest should be ready by the time ya get back.”
“Yep,” Big Mac answered back as he lifted the table of food up with little Applebloom grabbing the end and getting lifted with it as Big Mac started to walk toward the Town Hall.
Twilight was still worried that Applejack might not be ready when she said she would be, “(is she trying to bite off more than she can chew again; I hope this isn't a repeat of Apple-bucking season),” she thought. As she looked back up toward the sun, she noticed that the time was still ticking away, “(I’ll just have to trust her.)” Twilight left to check on the rest of her friends.
Deep within Ponyville a loud crashing sound, like shattering glass could be heard from the center of town. Twilight heard the sound and quickly ran toward it. She spotted Spike next to a beautiful violet-haired women standing in front of a large pile of broken glass. The women had a very thin figure with a medium build covered by a white open backed, long sleeved top with open shoulders (to show he diamonds mark) coated in jewels. Her legs were partly covered by a white-slashed long skirt with black shorts underneath, purple heels on her feet, and like Twilight, a small horn on top of her left arm.
Twilight looked closely at the shards of glass and finally admitted the worst. “Rarity, Spike, by any chance is that the glass statue I asked you two to pick up for the party.”
“Well…” Spike was scared to answer.
“I’m ashamed to say that it is Twilight, or at least it was, if you could call it such.” Rarity spoke up.
“What happened? Did you drop it?” Twilight asked
“Not really,” Spike said
“This was no accident Twilight,” Rarity admitted, “I put the poor thing out of its misery.”
“What!? What do you mean ‘put it out of its misery’?”
“See here Twilight, an event such as this is for too important to be sullied with such an atrocity. The poor thing seemed as though its arm was where its leg should have been.”
“Spike?” Twilight looked towards her assistant
“Well… I have to agree with Rarity.”
“(Of course he does) Well what about the party?”
“Fear not Twilight, I shall create a sculpture far superior to whatever you would call what we were carrying.”
“Exactly, Rarity can fix this. Don’t sweat it Twilight.” Spike said as Twilight began looking increasingly worried again.
“Come now Spike, I will require your assistance,” Rarity started to walk off and Spike quickly followed after her.
“Can she really finish in time,” Twilight looked at the two as they walked out of sight, “small chance oh that, ‘sigh’ (okay, I guess we don’t really need a glass statue. I just hope Rainbow finished decorating the hall, I better go check.)” She headed back towards Ponyville Town Hall.
As she was heading for the Town Hall again, she had run into, possibly the last person that she wanted to see at the moment, “Huh… oh, Fluttershy, nice to see you.”
“Twilight, I’m happy that I finally found you, I have something very important that I have to tell you.” Fluttershy said with her normal quiet voice.
“Oh really, that’s really interesting. Well bye,” Twilight tried to get away from her as fast as she could.
Fluttershy quickly flew in front of her to stop her from walking away, “Twilight, where are you going?” she asked
“Well… you know, I have something’s I have to do, and some other things I have to do somewhere… not here,” Twilight wasn’t in anyway being sneaky.
Fluttershy wondered what was up with her, but before she could ask, someone found her again.
“Fluttershy, there you are, I’ve been looking all over for silly,” said Pinkie pie.
“Oh look its Pinkie Pie, you two should hang out; you never get to do that with her anymore,” Twilight tried to sneak away again.
“But Twilight,” Fluttershy said, “I really have to tell you something,”
“Well why don’t you just tell me then?” Pinkie answered
“Well… okay, earlier today me and…” Fluttershy was stopped by Pinkie’s hand over her mouth.
“Hold that thought. You’ll have plenty of time to tell me on our way, we still have a lot of stuff to do birthday girl.”
“What! But Pinkie, I really don’t think I can handle anymore of those activities and I really have to talk to Twilight.”
“There will be time for that later, but first lets have some fun,” Pinkie starts to drag Fluttershy to Celestia knows where to do Luna knows what. Fluttershy looked back towards Twilight, who was a good while away by now and got a little worried.
When Twilight opened the door to Town Hall, she simple could not believe what she saw again. “No freakin’ way…,” the hall had still not been decorated, apart from a few lone streamers on the wall, “she hasn’t done anything. How long can it possible take to pick up a present, especially for Rainbow Dash?” she thought back to when Dash had said that she was ‘getting back to work,’ “What did she mean when she said that?” Twilight quickly headed through the door she remembered Rainbow Dash did. Once she got outside, she was able to find dash messing with some large contraption in the middle of the Hall’s court yard. She was a little annoyed to see her working on it instead of doing what she promised and went over to see what was up.
“Rainbow Dash,” she screamed, “Rainbow!” Rainbow Dash finally heard her and started to head her way, “Oh, hey Twilight, what’s up,” she at last answered.
“Rainbow Dash, what are you doing? What is this thing?”
“This is none other than my ‘Rainbow-course extreme’”
“You’re what?”
“It’s an obstacle course that I made for the party. When I was inside, I got to thinking, ‘that Fluttershy never seems to do anything exciting in her life,’ so what better way to celebrate her birthday than giving her a little excitement? That’s exactly what this will do.”
“But Rainbow Dash, what about…”
“I just got the finishing touches on it, why don’t you give it a try,”
“What? Not a chance, that doesn't look…”
“Oh don’t be a wimp. I’ll time you. Ready, go,” Rainbow Dash pushed Twilight across the starting line, causing the course to start.
At first Twilight just stood there, “look Rainbow, I’m not going to…” before Twilight could finish, she notices a large shadow at her feet. When she looked up, she noticed a large hay stack about to fall right on top of her, and quickly dodged back to avoid it. Before she could get her footing back, more hay stacks began to fall and she was forced to run farther into the course. The hay stopped falling after a while only for her to step between two walls that started flinging fruit at her once she did. She ran out as quickly as she could only to start slipping on a long wet mud slide which slid her in a crescent path to the next part. “Rainbow this is starting to get a little…” as she stepped forward, she noticed that ground under her felt extremely loss and she knew what that meant, “damn.” The ground gave out from under her as a trap door opened up, but she jumped out of the way before she fell in, only for more trap doors to open with every jump she made until she finally got to the end of the course and face planted across the line.
“Time, 5:28; not bad Twilight,” Dash said to the downed girl, “Nothing to write home about, but not bad. So what did you think?”
Twilight looked up at her ‘friend’ with a hateful stare, “What did I think? I think it was…”
“I know, it’s still just too easy. Maybe I should add more hay, or maybe more pits.” Rainbow pondered.
“Rainbow,” Twilight said, “are you trying to kill Fluttershy for her birthday?”
“Oh come on, if you can get through that course, I’m sure that she can do the same.”
Twilight ignored the obvious insult, because she was already too annoyed, “Rainbow, what does this course have to do with the party. I thought that you said that you were going to decorate the Hall.”
“I am. Now that I’m done with my course, I’ll be able to finish that hall in no time at all, no worries.”
“Well by any chance did you remember to get the present we got Fluttershy?”
“Huh… oh the present, I knew I forgot something. I’ll just pick up the present before going back to the Hall, no sweat.”
“(No sweat, yeah right.)” Twilight started to walk away.
“Well, now I have to go pick up a present, cook the party’s food, and re-order an expensive crystal statue before the party starts in…” Twilight looks at the sun again, “…1-hour.”
“Why would you do all that?”
“Because every-pony else seems too be too busy with their own things to help me with them. Now I’m just going to have to do this on my own. It’s no big deal, I’m sure I can get it done, I just have to hurry.” Rainbow starts to look at Twilight with a little confusion. “At least Fluttershy is still distracted. That will make things easier. Now first I should probably head to…”
“SURPRISE!!!” Pinkie popped up in front of Twilight again, knocking her back to the ground.
“Pinkie!” Twilight said, annoyed.
“Did I surprise you, cool, my surprise is ready. Wow what happened to you?” Pinkie looked at Twilight, still covered in mud and fruit stains all over her body and clothing.
“It’s a long story,” Twilight look over towards Rainbow, “Pinkie, aren't you suppose to be stalling Fluttershy?”
“I was, but then I saw all of ‘them’,” Pinkie pointed over towards all of the people heading for the town hall, waiting for the party to start. “They reminded me that I still had something important to do. My SURPRISE still needed a lot of work, so I needed to get back to that.”
Twilight looked on at all of the party guests and got extremely worried. She wasted no more time and started to her first new task. “I’m out of time,” Twilight cried, “I have to do something right… ahhhh!” she had accidentally fallen into one of Rainbow Dash’s pit falls in her attempt at a mad dash.
Rainbow Dash looked down the pit to see if she was okay, “Twilight,” She shouted, “Are you okay down there?”
Twilight quickly teleported herself back to the top of the pit, startling Rainbow Dash into the air, “Rainbow, how in the wide, wide world of Equestria did you make such a deep hole in such a short time?”
“Hard work and determination.” Rainbow joked.
Twilight had no response. She looked around and asked, “Where’d Pinkie Pie go?”
“She went back to the Town Hall; she said that she still had something important to do.”
“Probably more surprise practice. ‘Sigh’ this isn't going the way that I had planed at all.”
“Calm down egghead. Soon every-pony will get here and we can celebrate Fluttershy’s birthday right. Party or not.”
“I guess so, I just hope that nothing else goes wrong,” As Twilight said that, the ground beneath the girls started to shake intensely. The quake was felt through the whole town and the source seemed to be within the hole by the girl’s feet, “why did I have to say something?”
Twilight and Rainbow started to look down the hole, wondering what could be making the quake, “Rainbow, what in Equestria did you put down there,” Twilight yelled to the winged girl.
“Nothing,” she responded, “just a bunch dirt.”
“Oh no,” Fluttershy said as she started to head towards the girls. She began to look down the hole too. “How did this hole get here?”
“Well…” Rainbow was hesitant to answer.
“It’s part of the obstacle course Rainbow made for your birthday,” Twilight was not hesitant to say.
“Twilight, what the hey?”
“The party was a bust anyway, we might as well tell her.”
Fluttershy wasn't sure what was going on but she was too worried right now to care. “Girls this is really bad. Quickly Twilight, I have to tell you…” Before Fluttershy could finish, a massive amount of energy began bursting out from the pit in the form of a powerful red light. As it grew in intensity, something began rising from the pit. The light prevented a clear view of the figure, the girls attempted to look at it, as best they could; it was a man, a petite man wearing a black cloak that seemed to move on its own, having a head of long black-slung-back hair with a small patch of green in the front, almost looking like a curved horn. The red light had been emitting from a series of marks on his palms and forehead, growing until in engulfed his whole body.
“What the hay is that thing,” Twilight said in fear.
“Twilight, that’s the ‘thing’ that I was trying to tell you about before” Fluttershy clarified.
“What!?” Twilight and Rainbow Dash cried
“Last night, when I was in town trying to lead a few lighting bugs that had strayed into town back to the forest, I spotted Princess Luna staring at this very same spotted.”
“What!?” Twilight yelled, “You saw Princess Luna here!?”
“It was her who told me about him.” Fluttershy began to explain, “His name is Minucorn, a dark wizard that Princess Celestia Sealed in Ponyville more than two centuries ago. Every decade, she has to redo the seal, but this year she wasn’t able to come, and neither was Luna, so she told me to ask you to seal him back.”
“Me?” Twilight said confused, “how am I supposed to do this.”
“She told me the spell you needed, but it had to be cast when he was still in the ground. The seal is broken now, it’s too late.”
“Why didn’t she just redo the spell when she was here?” Rainbow Dash argued
“What was the spell?” Twilight asked, ignoring Dash’s question
“It’s called… Light Shell; I think that’s the name she used.”
“A Light Shell, but that’s just a beginner’s spell!”
Twilight’s shout caught the attention of the once docile Minucorn. Now noticing the girls, he rose up one of his marked hands as a red orb began to form in it. Luckily the girls saw the attack coming and got out of the way before it hit. The impact was massive, engulfing the entire courtyard in its energy, and destroying all that it touched. The girls appeared on the far side of the court as the smoke cleared. They looked on in horror as they saw the absolute devastation the wizard caused from only one attack.
“My course!!!” Dash shouted, stating her concern “I worked for hours on that!”
“Really? All that’s happening and you’re worried about your course?” Twilight responded.
“Hey, it was a hard course to make.”
Minucorn was already readying another blast.
Applejack, Big Macintosh, and Apple Bloom had been walking to the party, carrying all of the food, when they noticed the strange event. The sky was darkened into a blood-red shade as the energy of the sorcerer leaked into the atmosphere.
“Applejack,” Rarity yelled as she ran over to the family, a large crystal statue of Fluttershy flying behind her and Spike following, “What is going on here?”
“I have no idea, but I think I can guess where it’s comin’ from.” She looked to the skies and saw the large pillar of light coming from the direction of the Town Hall, “Oh no, come on!” Applejack ran as fast as she could with everyone following in suit, preparing for the worst.
Minutes of running bring the group to the front yard of the town hall. The light pillar was just behind the building. AJ dropped her crate of food; “Alright, I’m going.” she started toward the back only to be stopped by her little sister pulling her arm.
“Are you crazy?” said Applebloom, “ya can’t go back there.”
“Listen little sis’,” Applejack kneels to Applebloom’s height, “I have to go. Somethin’s just telling me that I need to be there. Big Mac,” she said to her older brother, “Take Applebloom, and the rest, and get in the Hall. I’m counting on you to keep them safe, can you do that.”
“Yup,” Big Mac said, lifting there sister up. “Be careful,” he said as he watched AJ run off with a few extra tagalongs.
“I thought I told ya’ll to get in the hall?” Applejack halted before her shadows.
“And leave you to deal with that thing alone?” Spike said, looking toward the light, “not a chance; we’re going; we have that same feeling too you know.”
“Yes,” Rarity confirms, “something is not quite right. We refuse to let you go alone”
Applejack didn’t argue. “Fine, come on,” she ran again.
“Big Macintosh, make sure that nothing bad happens to that statue,” Rarity called back, understand?” Big Mac aggresses, bringing the statue, food, and Applebloom into the hall while the girls and spike headed for the light.
On the other side of the Hall, The group spotted the figure of the dark wizard, now flying farther into the town. “What in all of Equestria is that?” Applejack said.
“Forget about that, look!” Rarity focused their attention to Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rainbow, all having been knocked out. The group ran over to their fallen friends in hopes that they are alright, and after a bit of nudging… or slapping, the girls finally came to.
“Uhgg… what… what happened?” Twilight said as she awake.
“That’s what we want to know,” Applejack asked, “…what happened here?”
“…Minucorn… Where’s Minucorn?” Twilight tried regaining her senses.
“Who?” Rarity said.
“If you’re talking about that glowing guy, he’s leaving.” Said Spike
“No! We can’t let him get away.” Twilight tried to get to her feet, but couldn’t keep her balance. Luckily, Applejack caught her.
“Whoa there; why can’t we? Who is he?”
“Minucorn…” Fluttershy said, finally awake, “He’s a dark wizard.”
“…and a dangerous one, we can’t let him get away.” Twilight finally got to her feet, Fluttershy following.
“He’s not going to,” Rainbow said, rising finally “not if I can help it.” She bolted towards Minucorn without a second thought.
“Rainbow, wait,” Applejack shouted to no avail.
“She can’t, and we shouldn’t either,” Twilight stumbled and eventually ran after her, “we have to take this guy down before he hurts anyone else.” The others had no time to argue. They started running again in attempts to catch up to Twilight and whatever she was chasing.
Rainbow Dash got into range of Minucorn, “Hey ‘Sparky’.” Minucorn looks toward the noise, “you trying to leave without getting a proper ‘welcome.’” She pulled back her fist and tried punching him, but the shot was just deflected, even though he didn’t move an inch. Rainbow Dash tried a few more times, but all had the same result. She gained no ground, but she refused to give up.
The others arrived in time to see their friend punching away like a mad horse, only for all of her shots to hit nothing but air. After a bit, Minucorn got tired of the display, grabbed Rainbow’s last punch, and threw her over her friends and into a nearby building. The girls quickly ran to the downed mare’s side
After ‘swatting the fly,’ Minucorn went back to what he came for. He raised his hands into the air as he began releasing a large amount of energy that began working its way into the town’s buildings and any pony not lucky enough to be at the town hall. As the now negatively charged energy returned to him, he began absorbing it like a magic sponge. His body started shining brighter as the energy fed his already great power.
“What is he doing?” Rarity asked.
“This is how he feeds,” Answered Fluttershy, “his magic increases negative feelings in any-pony who gets too close. Once they’re at their peak, he starts absorbing the suffering spirit; it’s just awful.”
“Which is why we’re doing this” Rainbow Dash said, visibly wounded from the toss but still flying, “So are you guys going to just stand there or are you going to fight.” She flew back toward him.
“Well, nothing will be accomplished by standing here,” Rarity spoke, following after Rainbow Dash.
“We had better follow too,” spoke Twilight doing the same. The rest follow after her.
Rainbow tried kicking Minucorn as he fed, but her attack was just deflected like the rest. Rainbow, being swatted again, acted as a sign for Rarity to try and break through the magic field. She focused her magic on the ground Bellow the wizard, lifting a few jewels up and surrounding him with them.
“It’s not exactly common for me to find gems in town. You will pay for forcing me to use them in this way.” She launched the crystal projectiles toward Minucorn, but they just turned to so much dust as they came into contact with his shield. Twilight paid close attention to how the shield bent as the projectiles pelted it, but no matter how it was hit, it never did more than that. Eventually Rarity ran out of gems and the shield looked no closed to breaking. “Impossible,” she says in confusion. Minucorn took the opportunity to grab Rarity in a magic field, lifting her kicking and screaming off the ground before launching her at a break-neck speed. The friends could only look in horror as she flew out of reach. Luckily, Rainbow Dash got back up and flew to catch rarity before she could sustain any serious damage, to everyone’s relief. Spike quickly ran to her side.
“Ok, so gems couldn’t hurt ya, huh?” Applejack walked up next, “then let’s try this.” She grabbed an Apple from the bag she was still holding, launched it into the air and kicked it at an unimaginable speed, hitting the shield with amazing force. Minucorn wasn’t scared of ‘fruit’ so he proceeded farther into the city. “You’ll regret turning your back to me.” Applejack tossed the whole bag in the air, causing all of the apples to fly out. As they came back down, Applejack kicked each with the same force and precision, causing them to explode on top of the shields surface. Minucorn still paid no mind to the attacks, until he started feeling the force on his back, causing him to turn.
“I get it,” Twilight said as she observed, “Applejack’s hitting the same spot over and over, so it’s breaking down the shield.”
The apples continued to fly, each warring the shield down more and more. “(Come on, open up)” Applejack thought, watching the shield closely, until finally, it broke. “All right,” Applejack wound her leg back, “Try this on for size,” she kicked her last apple with twice the force of the rest. The projectile flew through the air with immense speed until it finally reached Minucorn’s shield and, effortlessly, flew through, only to be caught in his hand.
Applejack was in shock to see her attack, which could give a dragon a head-ache, caught so easily. The wizard crushed the fruit in his hand, and with the same, began to launch a wave of small red projectiles at Applejack, similar to the apples she through. Twilight quickly opened a shield in front of AJ, but the force was more than enough to break through. AJ jumped back to avoid it, so she wasn’t damaged much, until Minucorn appeared behind her and launched one more energy ball at point blank range. The blast caused her to fly into Rainbow, who was trying to catch her as she did for Rarity, but ended up getting struck by the flying pony instead. They were knocked out, but luckily still alive.
“Applejack, Rainbow Dash!” Twilight looked toward the two, and then toward the rest of her friends. “This can’t go on any farther. I’m ending this now.” Twilight stepped forward, but was stopped when Fluttershy stepped in front of her.
“Wait Twilight,” she said.
“What are you doing?”
“Twilight please, before you attack him, let me try something first.”
“What?” Twilight did not like what she was hearing, “Fluttershy, this isn’t like taming a wild animal. We’re fighting an evil wizard. You could get hurt, or worse.”
“Just trust me; I know what I’m doing.” Twilight thought back to when she trusted her friends last, how it didn’t go her way at all, but still…, “Okay.” Fluttershy just gave a thanking smile and nod and started towards Minucorn. “(Please be careful)”
Fluttershy flew directly in front of Minucorn and looked his way while he looked back. Minucorn raised one of his hands and to ready another spell. Twilight saw this and got one of hers ready as well. “Hearts…” Fluttershy said in a caring voice, “Hearts Major.” The name seemed to connect with Minucorn, because he lowered his hand and just flew there. “That’s your real name right, born in Trottingham as an earth-pony, but fell in love with magic. That’s why you put that mark on your head, but when you did other ponies started to make fun of you, they called you a freak, and treated you so horribly. It was all of that mocking that turned you into this, right? But they were wrong; you’re not a freak. Stop this; just let us help you, please.”
The friends where surprised to see the way Fluttershy’s words seemed to be affecting Minucorn. As he looked at the kind girl, his eyes began to feel heavy as tears began forming in them. He held out his hand as Fluttershy did the same, showing that she meant him no harm. As Minucorn tried to reach her, something began to go wrong. His entire body began to tense up and the marks on his hands and head shined a violent-red light as his energy began to serge through him. He screamed and flailed as the energy continued to intensify, eventually looking at Fluttershy again, with hate and anger in his eyes instead of sadness. Twilight screamed at the girl “Fluttershy get out of there!” but before she could move, Minucorn had caught her in his grasp.
Fluttershy struggled and twitched as she tried to escape the red energy that kept her stationary. “Hearts… please, don’t let the mark control you…,” as she spoke, Minucorn got noticeably angrier as he started to clench the hand pointed toward her. Fluttershy screamed out in pain, the energy rushing around and through her, tearing away at her from the inside out.
Twilight looked at the horrific scene before her, “Stop this now!” she screamed and rushed him with her horn blazing bright with its indigo aura, “let her go right now!!!” Minucorn saw her coming and swung his arm her way, tossing Fluttershy, hitting Twilight, and sending her back.
The girls had all woken up in time to see scene, and none of them were happy. Rarity and Spike rushed over to Twilight and Fluttershy, but Applejack and Rainbow Dash only looked at Minucorn, a bloodlust in their eyes that they have never felt before. “You… heartless… cruel… BASTERD!!!” Rainbow Dash screamed as she flew back into the sky while an immense electrical field, from inside of her, began to wrap itself around her body, “You’re going to pay for that!!!”
“Don’t think your going in there alone partner,” Applejack said as she grabbed a lasso from her back and ran towards Minucorn, followed by Rainbow.
Twilight was still sitting on the ground with Fluttershy on her lap. She was badly bruised and blood had started leaking out of her mouth, but most of her wounds were internal; too many to be mentioned. Twilight checked her pulse and was scared to feel how weak it was.
“Twilight,” Rarity said as they finally reached them, “Please tell me she’s ok. She’s not…”
“No, but she’s close. Her pulse is slow and she has a lot of internal bleeding.”
Rarity grew even more worried (if that was possible), and Spike just looked in shock. “Twilight, can you do anything for her,” Spike finally said.
Twilight looked up at the battle taking place in front of her. Rainbow flew at intense speed, either crashing into Minucorn or causing small electric twisters around him. Applejack used her legs to attack every chance that she got, not bothering to worry about the magic field. There attacks were doing more than before, but still not that much. “(It won’t work),” Twilight looked deeply into the light given off by Minucorn, “(their attacks can’t do anything… ‘They’ can’t do anything.)” Her eyes grew darker… colder.
Twilight looked toward her wounded friend with a mix of sadness, concern and anger in her eyes. She lifted her horn and placed it on top of Fluttershy’s heart as it started to glow.
“Rarity, come here," Twilight called her friend, “I need you to help me heal her." Rarity listened and ran over to Twilight's side. "Just put your horn over her heart, like me, and focus your magic on keeping it stable.”
“Okay,” Rarity did as Twilight said and started to shine her horn over Fluttershy’s heart while Twilight started to walk away.
“Don’t move from here,” Rarity didn't know what Twilight was doing, “if you do, Fluttershy could die,” Rarity grew scared again and focused on Fluttershy. Twilight walked towards Spike, “Spike…,” she kneeled down and hugged him, “…thank-you… for being such a great assistant.”
“Twilight…” Spike said, “What’s going on?”
“Do you remember the time after the Sombra incident? The spell I learned?”
“Spell, what… no, Twilight that’s crazy, there has to be another way. What about the elements?” “There in Canterlot,” Twilight let him go, “and even if they were here, does Fluttershy look like she could use them.” Spike looks over towards Fluttershy, still unconscious and being healed. “I have to do this,” Twilight started to walk away.
“Wait Twilight…,” Spike reached for her, but Twilight activated her horn again, causing Spike to halt in his tracks, “What the… I can’t move, Twilight,” she walked away. “Twilight, please don’t do this!”
Back in the battle, Minucorn actually started to look a bit shaken. Rainbow Dash and Applejack kept attacking relentlessly, fueled by their new rage for the cruel wizard. Rainbow Dash crashing into him with assault after electrified assault while Applejack smashed through his shield with a wide array of powerful kicks every chance she got. Although it seemed like Minucorn wasn't affected by any of their attacks, his guard had definitely gone up; he had started to get serious. After a few more attacks, Minucorn’s focus was mainly on Applejack, who was by far the more aggressive attacker. Rainbow took his lack of attention as an opportunity to fly as far away from the fight as possible while still keeping them in sight. Minucorn grew confused at the sight of the retreating girl, letting his guard down for just a moment, but that moment was All Applejack needed, catching Minucorn with her lasso while his back was turned.
“Gotcha,” she said with a grin, “Now Rainbow!”
“Right,” Rainbow Dash increased her speed, and electricity, greatly until a large air pocket formed around her. “Eat this!” she said as the pocket broke, causing a large Sonic-boom as she continued forward with a long rainbow following her.
As she hit, a large electrical explosion engulfed them all, but when it cleared, she was shown to have stopped just before Minucorn body while his eyes glowed with intense red light.
“What the?” Rainbow Dash said in confusion.
“That aint’ possible” confirmed Applejack.
Minucorn looked AJ’s way as she started to lift into the air along-side Rainbow, her lasso disintegrating in her hands. With a flick of his head, he threw the two, again, towards the girls.
“This guy’s unreal,” Applejack said, trying to get to her feet.
“I don’t care… I’m not quitting,” Rainbow said, flying back into the air.
“Yes you are,” Twilight said walking beside the two.
“What the, when did you…” before Applejack could finish, Twilight had used her magic to freeze them like she did Spike.
“Hey Twi, what gives,” Rainbow cried, frozen in the air.
“Just let me handle this,” Twilight said, as she kept walking.
“What are you talking about? Are you trying to fight him alone?” Applejack yelled. Twilight gave no answer.
"Are you crazy!?" Rainbow shouted in response, "if we couldn't beat him together, why would you think you could do it alone?"
“I have a way,” she walked off.
“How the hey is she…”
“You have to stop her!” Spike interrupted, “Please, if you don’t do something, Twilight going to die!”
“Die!?” Applejack shuttered at the very word, “You…You don’t know that for sure,”
“Listen, Twilight never told anyone this, but after the event in the Crystal Empire, she was really upset that she couldn’t beat Sombra alone. Afterwards, she looked for a spell that could make her stronger, and the one she found could do the trick, but at a price. No-pony that has ever cast that spell has ever survived it.”
“What!!!” Rainbow Dash screamed, “Why In All of Equestria Would She Use a Spell Like That?!?!”
“Because…its Twilight Sparkle…” Fluttershy said, finally out of her coma, causing the rest to look her way. “Twilight wants to protect us. To her…, if she can do that… she doesn’t care what happens to her…, as long as we’re safe.”
Twilight walked up to Minucorn and got ready, “(I’m sorry girls; there’s just no other way.”) her horn begins to shine more and more intensely, until her whole body begins to do the same as she began to lift into the air. Minucorn sensed the massive energy source and looked her way to see her body glowing and her eyes shining with a pure white light. Minucorn smiled a cocky smile as his own eyes began glowing again.
“That’s the spell,” Spike said worried, “someone has to do something!”
“We can’t move. How do we stop her?” Rainbow Dash asked
“We had better think of something fast.” Applejack answered
“I can’t do anything; I’m the only one keeping Fluttershy alive right now.” Rarity stated
“Twilight…” Fluttershy said, still in a lot of pain.
Back at town hall, their sixth friend had walked outside onto the back porch.
“Man what is taking them all so long,” Pinkie said, looking out for the rest of her friends. “Don’t those girls know that not even a Pinkie party can start until the guest of honor arrives?” Eventually her gaze lead her to what she assumed was a ‘massive light show’ in the distance. “Wow, what a crazy light show.” She began to run towards the lights in hopes of seeing what was making them.
“Twilight, stop this. Cancel the spell!” Rainbow shouted as loud as she could. The rest started shouting similar notions, but Twilight didn’t even bother looking their way.
“I’m going to finish this, now.” Twilight raised her arm to the sky and focusing her energy into her horn to a level she had never thought possible before. “(So much power. I just hope this will be enough.)” Minucorn gave another cocky smile as he pointed one of his marked hands Twilight’s way and started forming another energy orb, this one bigger than all the rest.
“This isn’t good, She aint’ listenin’ to a word we say.” Applejack said.
“There has to be something we can…,” before Rainbow Dash could finish that sentence, she was interrupted by their pink friend.
“Oh girls, there you are,” Pinkie said, “it’s about time I found you. Do you know how long you kept the party waiting?”
“Pinkie?” said Applejack, “Where did you… never mind listen Pinkie, we need you to…”
“Hey girls, why are you all just sitting on the ground? Except you Rainbow, you’re just flying in the air.”
“Pinkie, listen, it’s about Twilight, she’s…”
“Oh yeah, isn’t that her in front of that shiny guy? Oh that reminds me, there’s something that I wanted to ask him. Just wait here girls; I’ll be right back,”
“What, no Pinkie stop! Don’t go over there,” Applejack shouted to the pinkie girl, but she wasn’t listening either. “Hello, excuse me,” she said as she got to Minucorns side, “Mr. glow-y guy, can I please have your attention please.” her call got the attention of Minucorn and Twilight.
“Pinkie!” Twilight shouted in surprise.
“Hello there, I just wanted to ask you something,” Minucorn got a little closer to the pink-girl, “that’s a pretty cool light show you’re doing right now. You see me and my friends are kind of throwing a little party for our good friend Fluttershy, well actually it’s more like a major-awesome-appreciation-Pinkie-party, and when I saw that light show of yours, I started to think, ‘do you know what would make this party even more majorly-awesome… a fire works show,’ and since you seem to be pretty good at that I was thinking that you would be the perfect person to do it. So what do you say; you’re more than welcome to come and enjoy the rest of the party as well of course, and you know what they say, ‘there aint’ no party like a Pinkie Pie Party.’”
“Pinkie, this is not some random circus performer. You are talking to an evil wizard. He’s not going to…”
“Sure.” The group went into shock after hearing Minucorn not only talk, but actually accept Pinkie's crazy idea.
“Really!? You’ll really come to the party and do that awesome show for every-pony!?” Pinkie said in excitement.
“Of course, who could say no to a party, especially a Pinkie Party? It sounds like great fun.”
“Yeah it does!”
“In fact, why don’t I give you an example of my ‘display.’” Minucorn Held his hand to Pinkies face and started charging it again.
“Ooooo, shiny.” Pinkie looked on in wonder.
“Pinkie, Move!!!” Twilight shouted, causing her to loose her focus on her spells and free her friends.
“Hey,” Applejack said, “I can move again”
“Well then let’s go,” Rainbow said as she activated her Buccaneer Blaze again and flew toward Twilight while Applejack ran to Pinkie Pie.
“Damn it! You’re not going to hurt any more of my friends!” Twilight tried to blast Minucorn out of the air, but was hit from the side by a speeding Rainbow Dash, while Minucorn fired his blast at Pinkie, only for her to be pushed out of the way at the last second.
Rainbow and Twilight landed to the side, with Rainbow pinning Twilight onto the ground.
“Rainbow, what are you doing?!” Twilight yelled while struggling in Rainbow's grasp, “Just let me handle this, none of you can defeat him, and I’m the only one who has a chance. It has to be me who takes him down.”
Rainbow Dash pulled back one of her arms, balled her fist, and punched Twilight square in the cheek. The sensation caused Twilight to drop her spell while Rainbow dropped her field.
“You idiot,” Rainbow said, “You… DAMN IDIOT!!! Just what the hey’ were you trying to prove with that little stunt!? What in Equestria makes you think that we would want to beat this thing so badly that we would actually risk losing you in the process,” Rainbow started to tear up. “The whole reason that we’re fighting him in the first place is because he’s trying to hurt our town… all of our friends, so do you think we can really call it a win if we lose one of our best friends in the process.” Twilight looked over to her friends and noticed that Spike, Rarity and the now awake Fluttershy all had tears in their eyes too; Applejack was telling Pinkie what had happened and she started to look at Twilight with tears in her eyes as well, while Applejack just gave her a stare of disappointment. Twilight was starting to cry now too. “So maybe we messed up on some party, maybe we got caught up in something’s that made us ditch you when you needed us, but don’t think that means that you can’t trust us to help when it really counts. So don’t you ever try taking things into your own hooves like that again. And I swear to Celestia, if you ever really do jump the gun like that, I will follow you to death and kick you ass all the way back to Equestria if I have to,” she gave a slight smile at the statement. Twilight didn’t know what to say.
“She’s correct you know,” Twilight heard a familiar voice coming from behind her, causing her to look to see who it was. She saw a tall woman with long, light, muti-colored hair, wearing a white dress, a gold crown, and bearing the mark of a large sun on her shoulder. Next to her was a shorter woman with dark-blue hair, wearing a black-frilled dress, a black tiara, and the mark of a moon surrounded by darkness on her shoulder. They both had both a long horn on their left arms, wings on there ankles, and where flying just behind Twilight.
“Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, how did you…” Twilight said in shock and ahhh
“We suspected that something was wrong, so we finished our business in Saddle-Arabia and rushed back here,” Luna stated
“My young student, I understand that your heart was in the right place, but remember, this opponent survives by consuming the negative emotion of those around him. Say your spell did work, how do you think your friends would feel after?” Twilight stared to think just how miserable she would feel if she saw her friends die and figured that they would feel the same way.
“Even if you did defeat him, he would just feed on that newly placed misery and come back,” Added Luna.
Twilight couldn’t believe herself; just how pointless her attack… her death would have really been, “Princesses… I just…,” she started to cry uncontrollably and feel into Celestia’s embrace.
Celestia held her student while looking over to their opponent, who seemed to be extra furious to see Celestia specifically. “Come Twilight, I believe it’s time that we ended this.” she stated.
“We couldn’t have said it better sister,” Luna said as she grabbed Twilight’s waist and followed her sister back into the sky. “Twilight Sparkle, do you remember the spell that we told your shy friend to tell you.”
“Light shell? But that spell is one of the most basic imprisonment spells there is. How is that going to help us?”
“Normally it is,” Celestia said, “but when cast by the hands of a master spell-caster, or three, it becomes infinitely more.” Celestia held out her horn, Luna did the same. They both looked at Twilight as she added her horn to the group.
“Ready,” Luna asked; Twilight nodded.
They all powered up their horns and pointed them towards Minucorn. He knew what came next, so he tried desperately to attack, but it was too late.
“I’m sorry,” Celestia whispered under her breath as they all fired the light shell, canceling Minucorn’s attack, hitting him square on, and sending him back to the hole that he came from; sealed away once again.
The three sorceresses flew back to the ground, satisfied with their accomplishment. Once hitting, Twilight immediately lost her balance, almost falling over. Luckily, Luna and Celestia were there to catch her before that could happen.
“Whoa,” Celestia said as she caught her, “are you okay Twilight?”
She got back to her feet, “Yeah, I’m just a little tired.”
“After what you pulled, you’re lucky that’s all you are,” Luna added, forcing Twilight to hang her head in shame.
As they spoke, the skies above them started to go from a dark red, to its natural bright and shining blue.
“It looks like things are starting to return to normal.” Celestia pointed her gaze to the skies.
“Yeah, nor… oh no, Fluttershy!” Twilight squirmed out of the princess’s grip and used what strength she had left to scamper to her fallen friend’s side; all of the rest had already collected around her.
“Fluttershy…” Twilight dropped to her knees next to her, “…Fluttershy, are you alright?”
Fluttershy struggled to work her gaze on Twilight. “Yes,” she answered, “I’m just a little bit tired.”
“…I’m so sorry,” Twilight hung her head again.
“It’s okay.”
“No it’s not. I can’t believe that I didn’t trust you guys so much that I actually used that stupid spell.”
“It was just Minucorn influence,” Celestia said, walking up to the group with Luna at her back, “remember that he increases the negative emotion in a pony’s heart.”
“But he couldn’t have if I didn’t have those thoughts in my heart in the first place. How could I actually think that my friends couldn’t help me?”
“Its okay Twilight” said Fluttershy
“Quite right, you only did it so that you could protect us,” Rarity added.
“Yeah, yeah, just like you always do,” Pinkie said.
“Plus, this isn’t exactly the first time that you’ve gone a little overboard, and I doubt it’ll be the last,” Rainbow Dash claimed.
”Yeah… she’s got a point there Twi’,” said Applejack.
“No kidding,” Spike said.
“Yes, acting recklessly and making rash decisions does seem to be a common thing with you Twilight Sparkle,” Luna added as well.
Twilight was starting to think that they were being a little too agreeable.
“…but that’s the very thing that makes you such a wonderful student, and friend Twilight,” Celestia assured her. “The way that you help your friends, regardless of the threat to yourself, is one of the reasons we all care for you so much.”
A big smile worked itself onto Celestia’s face, as well as the rest of her friends, showing that they agreed with Celestia completely. Twilight brightened at the sight. She had always known how much her friends meant to her, and it was always nice to see just how much she meant to them too.
“Thanks guys,” Twilight said, “but Fluttershy, we should probably get you to a hospital now.” She gave a nod to agree with the idea.
“Wait a minute,” Pinkie yelled, “if it’s healing that you need, I know the best place to go. Follow me,” she ran while the group looked on and soon decided ‘why not,’ and followed after.
“Happy Birthday!” screamed the crowed of people, as the group finally walked into the Ponyville Town Hall, fully decorated, and filled with plenty of food. Rarities large statue of Fluttershy decorated the center of the hall while being surrounded by a group of presents.
“Wow,” Twilight finally said, “Pinkie this is amazing; how could you have done this so fast?”
“Duh,” Pinkie pulled a small cannon out of… somewhere, “…party cannon.”
“…and Rarity, that statue is beautiful.” Twilight’s eyes were fixed on the center piece.
“It did take me a bit longer than I would have liked, but I think it turned out quite nice,” Rarity answered.
“The same goes for the food; I couldn’t make as much as I wanted,” Applejack said.
Twilight looked at the full party room again and began to feel so foolish for thinking that her friends really didn’t care for her ideas at all, but she knew better now.
The girls and Spike found a table where they could all sit together, including the princesses.
“Fluttershy, are you sure you’re okay with this; being here instead of getting some rest?” Twilight said worried.
”Of course, after all the work you girls must have done, I can’t think of anyplace that I would rather be.”
Twilight looked at all of her friends, sitting and smiling together, “Yeah, same here.”
“Well to make this birthday complete,” Rainbow said as grabbed a small box from behind her back, “happy birthday Fluttershy,” she handed over the box
“Oh my,” Fluttershy responded, “thank you.”
“Our gift, but how did you…?”
“When you guy’s where walking over here, I flew by the store and picked it up. I told you not to sweat it.”
Twilight laughed at the statement. “So Fluttershy, aren’t you going to open it?” Fluttershy nodded and began unwrapping the small box. As it was unwrapped, the present had started to give off an intense light, but to Twilight’s surprise, she seemed to be the only one to notice. “Hey,” she cried, “What’s going on,” but no one seemed to hear her.
“Oh my,” Fluttershy said as she grabbed the small object out, “It’s beautiful.”
The present couldn’t be seen, but the light still grew larger and more intense, until finally, everything went black.
Within a large house, built within the core of a tree, a small purple unicorn had been resting on top of an open book lying on her work desk. From behind her, a small purple and green dragon came up to give her a waking nudge.
“Twilight,” he said, “Twilight wake up, its morning.”
Twilight awoke from on top of the book that she mistook for a pillow. “What…,” she grunted.
“Its morning I said, today is Fluttershy’s birthday, remember? Did you finally pick out a cake for the party?”
Twilight looked at the apparent cookbook and saw what cake it was on, the ‘blue-raspberry apple crumb cake. “Yeah… this one looks good.”
“Well then we had better get started on making it.” Spike headed to the kitchen to get started.
“Right, let’s get baking.” Twilight followed.
After finishing the cake, Spike and Twilight started toward Ponyville Town Hall. Twilight levitated the cake in front of her while Spike road on her back.
“Well, looks like we got our part done,” Said Spike “Do you think the girls remembered to get there’s?”
Twilight thought back to the weird dream she had and knew that the answer was obvious. “Yeah Spike, I’m positive they have. When our friends make a promise you can be sure that they’re going to keep it.”
“Spike, let’s just say, after last night, I’m defiantly going to be putting a lot more trust in my friends from now on. After all, I don’t think a pony could have ever ask for better ones.”
Spike couldn’t help but be curious at her response, “wow, what exactly happened last night?”
“Well you see…”
Twilight began telling Spike all about her weird dream in excruciating detail. As she spoke, the ground under them began to shake a bit.
“What the?” she gasped at the sensation, “Did you feel that?”
“Feel what?” Spike was oblivious to it.
“I thought…, you know what, never mind; it’s not important.”
The two just continued to the hall, deciding to shrug off the small tremor as nothing. And as they did, far under the town’s surface, where no pony could notice, a small… red…light began to shine.
