When Somepony might, in theory, have, theorically, screwed up. And in theory it might be a great and powerfull pony.
There are plenty of ways to change, alter or destroy worlds on paper. Plenty of theories. Especially when magic is involved. Fascinating and strange ideas can be created.
The problem comes when said theory is turned into practice. And the pony who might have, theorically, done it has no idea what she did. As great as she might be.
(Includes: ranting magicians, ego's getting kicked, Theories, talking about theories, theories being theoretical and more.)
It loses all of it's appeal when there is nopony around to see or hear Trixie. Not that Trixie wanted anypony to see her now.
And nopony would see Trixie if I didn't find solid ground to stand on. Trixie had pondered on occasion about how it would feel to float or fly. It wasn't that fun. But that might be because Trixie was actually falling and/or sinking. The only reason that the Intelligent and intuitief Trixie knew that was because she could still see the stars on one side and utter darkness on the other side. And Trixie was getting away from the former.
Very slowly. or maybe it was fast, but felt slowly because of the blood flowing out of Trixie's head. It might not be blood, as it was too dark to properly see. But it felt wet, made Trixie's hoof darker and came from behind Trixie's head. So Trixie assumed it was.
Trixie wasn't the only one sinking around. Buildings and patches of land could be seen floating around. Too far to be of use. Trixie had already tried swimming towards it, shooting herself towards it with a firework, pull herself towards it with magic and some other tricks. Fruitless at best and sending Trixie closer to the black abyss.
So the thoughtful and philosophical Trixie thought and pondered. And came to one conclusion. It might have been, a very big might, Trixie's fault. Trixie was trying a new spell out, to put twilight back in her place. Trixie had the Alicorn amulet on.
A scam it was. It was supposed to make Trixie as powerful as an alicorn and give Trixie access to an extensive amount of spells. Trixie became powerfuller, but still much weaker than that damned Twilight. And Trixie still had to learn new spells. And because of the amulet, meant that any misfire or miscasted spell ended up in much bigger explosions.
Still useful. And Trixie took much pleasure in getting a refund. The shopkeeper had been insistent on not giving any refund, but Trixie was very convincing. A fun story for another time. Trixie had found other trinkets that increased her power.
The spell was supposed to transmute earth and metal infusing it with a facsimile of life, creating a golem for Trixie to use. It would have pulled Trixie's wagon around and teach a lesson to snotty arrogant ponies who tought themselves better than Trixie.
When the spell was casted, Trixie was sent flying painfully into the air hitting her head, instead of animating the pile of carefully prepared rubble. The earth then trembled and began cracking open. A dark blueish-purplish glow coming from the cracks. Which was strange as Trixie spells were red(because of the amulet).
And then... Trixie got here. Not sure if it was a coincidence that the earth opened as Trixie casted her spell or if it was actually Trixie's fault. Not sure.
Trixie looked through Trixie's saddlebags. Maybe there something useful into it. Or some food. No such luck, as the bags only contained ingredients for potions and her two spellbooks. One Trixie had made herself(very empty and lots of marks from erasers. the other Trixie had found in some old desert temple. It black and had a drawing of goat skull on it's cover.
Trixie was in no mood to read. So the patient Trixie waited.
And waited.And waited. Longer and longer. As the loss of what was undeniable blood continued.
Trixie had difficulties staying awake. The only thing keeping Trixie awake was fear. Fear from the darkness which was coming closer and the stars got farther away.
Trixie took her book out. Maybe there was a spell that could help out. But Trixi...
I was not in the mood. I thought that keeping confident would help. But it's to no use. Repeating my name and referring to myself in the third person doesn't help if nopony is around it actually making me feel worse. I feel awful, i'm hungry, i'm scared, I can barely stay awake. Even if I could find a useful spell, would I even be able to cast it in my state.
but i had to try before being swallowed into the darkness. I pulled the spell book out and lighted my horn to be able to read it.
Roof tiles, roof tiles appeared as I lighted my horn. My snout hit the roof before the rest of my body fell onto it. I quickly tried to stand up and get my bearings back. But my blood loss and the strange gravity makes this so much harder.
I could barely see anything around me except for what was directly under my hooves. The light coming from my horn was very weak. And even then, it was draining me. I opened my spell book, as I still needed To heal my wound. I could now clearly see the blood dripping from behind my head.
Luckily the spell book was well organised. All healing spells could be found in the fourth and fifth chapter. I only needed to translate it. Each spell had a drawing accompanying them, showing the results of the spell(some very nasty looking) which would make finding the proper spell easier.
I found one that showed flesh and skin being mended. It was fortunately very short. I just needed to translate it.
I succeeded. I managed to translate and cast the spell. It took me a few minutes to read the spell, almost falling unconscious multiple times. And casting the spell was extremely taxing and painful. But the bleeding had stopped.
I wanted to fall asleep, but I feared that I might not wake up. I needed some rest, to allow my body to create some more blood. My light spell was still on. Maybe I should reread the golem spell to see if I had casted it properly. As I was still not sure that this wasn't my fault.
It was a twelve page long spell. It had taken me well over a month to translate it and just as long to prepare it. Had I somehow misread it, thus causing all of this?
Yes. The answer was yes I had misread it. The "Overconfident and vanitous" Trixie had in my haste mistranslated one word, which then changed the meaning of so many sentences. I had mistaken the word summoning with transmuting. It was actually a summoning spell. Create a body for whatever you summoned to use. That's the gist of the spell.
But even then, that wouldn't explain what happened. Unless I summoned something unbelievably powerful. Well I had stupidly mistranslated one word, so it was possible. In theory, it might have happened, not a guarantee.
Who am I kidding, everything I do goes wrong. Getting chased out of hundreds of towns, two humiliations at the hands of ursa minors(yes, I got into trouble with an ursa after being humiliated by Twilight), the manehattan firework incident, the stalliongrad firework incident and so much more. I'm definitely responsible, I just needed to admit it to myself.
"I, Trixie may have, possibly, theoretically, screwed up horrible." I half-heartedly admitted to nopony in particular.
"No shit Sherclop." Answered nopony in particular.
I, Trixie, looked around, in search of the voice that had just answered my self deprecating thoughts, which I had spoken aloud.
Which was both hard and easy. Hard because it was dark and my light spell had gone off. Easy because there were three glowing eyes staring back at me.
Only eyes, nothing else. I couldn't see a glowing body attached to the eyes. I also had to look up, as whoever or whatever owned those eyes was clearly much taller or flying above me. No sound was coming from "It". I knew it could speak, unless there actually were two creatures.
The three, fairly angry looking, eyes were the only real indication that something was there. They were, how to put it, ethereal? There was a certain low to it and it looked like there were tiny lights spread over the purplish colored sclera(I had to take some lessons in biology and anatomy to use some of the more "interesting spells) causing it to look like a bright night sky, but more purple. The most noticeable part were the pupils, which looked like tiny glowing ,bright stars.
Did the great and attentive pony that I am mention that the eyes looked angry?
And then It spoke. "hmph, that may have been a bit... uncouth." The voice was very... unexpected. It was very smooth and soft. There was also a strange undertone to it, something indescribable and other worldly. Yet very charming even if it seemed angry. But it didn't seem hostile. And very hard to define, very androgynous(I learned about that to avoid angering "big" mares or "tiny" stallions too frequently). I just had to engage it in conversation. A bit of confidence was all I needed.
"“The Great an…powerful...hi. Please don’t hurt me." The eyes kept staring. Their position shifted as if the head that they were attached to had tilted. They also looked curious instead of angry. And then it laughed. "HA..Ha...I didn't mean...ha...I'm sorry..ha..I was definitly impolite."
It then bellowed a loud laughter .It's eyes disappeared as it let out it's loud laughter. while it left me confused, it also let me get a better look at his silhouette. Each time it let out a laugh, It's body glowed a bit. Not bright enough to really see what it was, but enough to know that the eyes were attached to a head, which was attached to a neck, which was then attached to a body with limbs. Defenitly bigger than Celestia.
It then stopped laughing and looked back at me still snickering. It's eyes didn't look angry anymore. "I'm sorry... ha. I didn't mean to scare you, I just was in a bad mood. But you should see yourself, so confident before turning into a terrified little filly." It said, as it kept chuckling. It's eyes then shifted, becoming tinier. A light then appeared from what seemed to be his forehead.
To my surprise instead of seeing any kind of neighcraftian being, I saw an unicorn. It's hide being a darker purple than it's eyes, but just as ethereal as it's eyes, It also looked like It somehow had fur. It's mane and tail looking exactly like Celestia's and Luna's but it didn't float like theirs. It was clearly taller and much more menacing than both. The back of it's neck, the front of it's chest and it's lower hooves were covered in steel plates and one piece covering the front of it's snout. Gems could be seen protruding from it's spine adding to it's threatening look.
After I allowed my heartbeat to slow down and my headache to become slightly more bearable. I had a lot of questions, so better ask them now. "Greetings myshterious being, you are now in the preshence of the great and powerful Trixie who wshould like to know wsho you arshe?" I tried to put a confident facade, the slurring made that hard. The blood loss and hunger were taking it's toll on me. The ethereal creature looked more amused than anything else.
It then spoke with it's smooth voice, which was strangely very calming. "Well, you summoned me, but it's easy to gues that you didn't mean to." I was taken by a sudden realization. The spell hadn't totally failed, would this creature obey me? Or did it fail just enough that he wouldn't obey me. Before I could say anything It continued speaking. "I am genuinely sorry if I scared you, I was just very displeased at being suddenly summoned as I was enjoying myself a lot when it happened."
"Trixie ish alsho sorry, as Trixshie didn't mean to shummon you. Trixshie's shpell wash miscashted" I mentally facehooved myself, as I kept mumbling. Now was not the time to speak in the third person, especially while slurring. I blame the blood loss for my inability to behave. Staying awake was becoming nigh impossible. The creature looked awkwardly at me. "The spell was perfectly casted, you just didn't precise who you wanted to summon."
what? I had actually properly casted the spell? "Whsat? I shad actuallshy Pshroperly cashted the shpell?" It chuckled, but was starting to look worried. "Yes, you're supposed to prepare a physical body for the summoned and mentally prepare for who you want to summon. You did the first part perfectly. Yet were completely unaware of the second part. Which makes me wonder, how did you know about this spell?"
I pulled the black book out and showed it to him. I could try and explain it, but I decided not to because of the slurring. Also I felt like I would soon blackout. The ethereal creature just took a look at it, quickly reading the first page, then letting a sigh of understanding out. "There's no lexicon, whoever wrote it was clearly incompetent at his job. And the writing, it's a wonder you actually managed to translate one word of it." I just nodded, too weak to speak. A lexicon, huh. When I found the spell book, there had been more books around, but they were damaged beyond use. I sheepishly looked at It.
"Maybe I should introduce myself, so you won't have to refer to me as It or creature." It said. I had a no moment said any of that, I had thought It... "CANSSH YOUUSHHH REASSHSH MYSH MINSHD?" I blurted Incoherently like if I were extremely drunk. He now looked extremely worried. "No, but I can hear when you think about me. Only when it directly involves me, as you did succeed in properly summoning me." I was still lucid enough to understand what it said.
"Because of that, I have to obey your orders to a certain extent." It took me way too long for what he had said to dawn on me. I could give it orders and It would obey. I (almost) instantly knew what my first order would be.
"SSSHHAVESHH MEEESSshhee." And then an extra layer of darkness befell upon me, as I fell unconscious.
I slowly, weakly, sheepishly woke up. It took me a while to properly come to my wits. when I could endly take my surroundings in, I noticed that I wasn't outside anymore. I was laying in a bed, it was still dark but there was a lantern lying nearby. The ethereal being, sitting on another bed on my left reading some bright blue book. Once it noticed that I was awake it put the book on a night stand.
"Feeling better?" It had slightly concerned look on it's face. I think, it had three eyes on said face. And a few more on it's body.
I suddenly jumped up as I noticed that it's body was covered in eyes. Except that my back hooves didn't listen to me when I said that I wanted to get away, unlike my upper body. Which caused me to flop unceremoniously unto the ground. My back hooves got stuck and twisted in a blanket as my face hit the floor. I could feel my nose bleeding.
I heard a tiny chuckle. I was regaining feeling in my back hooves. It spoke. "I might have overdone it with the painkillers." I took a look around. I noticed that we were in a big, white, sterile looking room. We were clearly in an hospital(I should know, with how many times I had visited it). But how? Why was there a seemingly stocked hospital inside... wherever we are.
"Were... were are we? What happened? Who are you? What's with the eyes? Trixie is extremely confused. Trixie was floating above a black abyss, then fall in said abyss, which then contained building, before meeting You that Trixie has allegedly summoned, before being dragged here." I had an headache and all those questions did not help. At least didn't feel dizzy from the blood loss anymore. I tried to calm down, because I had panicked after seeing all of it's? Also, I had to mentally facehoove myself, as I kept speaking in third person.
It chuckled, put the book it was reading on the night shelf, closed all of it's eyes that weren't on it's face before speaking. "First, I can hear when you think about me. Second, I love how you speak in the third person. Third, were in one of many void in between universes. Fourth, you asked me to save you, so I did it. Fifth, it's hard to tell you what I am because of the language barrier, but you can call me hmmm... Cosmos(Not to be confused with another Cosmos). Also i'm male, you calling me an it hurts me as I do have confidence issues."
There was one part that I didn't hear, but didn't feel important. I also a name to call it... I mean him. I could give him orders couldn't I? "To a certain extent." He said. I would have to get used to that. I was tired, hungry, confused, scared, in pain and lost. Well, at least I was alive.
I was scared, moving alongside the eerily empty and dark hallways didn't help. Cosmo's presence did help a bit. But not that much, as I still didn't know much of him. I had to trust him, as he was carrying me on his back, because I couldn't walk because of my blood loss. My bloody nose, which I had gotten after falling over a second time, didn't help.
At least it was comfortable enough. His glowing... fur(?) was pretty soft and warm and the metal covering his neck wasn't too hard or cold. Trying to ignore this faily humiliating event, I looked around seeing the familiar hallway. Reminded me of the hospitals in Bucklynn (visited after a bear related incident). But only in not having any working lights.
The only light source around was Cosmo's himself and the lantern hanging from his horn. Enough to see around us but not down the dark, potentially danger filled hallway. About that, where exactly was I. He had said something about a void, but that was pretty vague. Better ask now, while everything is calm.
"So were are we exactly? There is a hospital here but nopony around. He thought for a few seconds before answering. "We are inbetween worlds, like a road in between two cities. But it is much harder to move around. Usually filled with scrap and remains of said worlds. So this building is a copy from what I assume to be your world. It's inhabitants are more of a..." He moved one of his hooves around while thinking.
"...mish mash." I raised an eyebrow. So this place was inhabited. Potentially with hostile creatures. "Trixie wonders if they could be dangerous?" "Maybe." He answered without a second thought. "Tourists and visitors are more dangerous than any of the creatures living here. We are part of said tourists and visitors." He then continued to trot along the hallway very unbothered.
"And you're not scared that we might get attacked?!" I blurted out. "Nope. I am by FAR..." his face twisted as his until now unseen mouth opened, putting a big smile, showing his big, sharp, metal teeth. "... one of the most terrifying beings that you can find here." I am way too absorbed by his sudden shift of tone and his very sharp teeth, too even shudder in fear.
He lets out a chuckle. "I can act scared if you want, I do partially obey to you." Ah, yes, he obeys to me. I still hadn't gotten used to it. But it was reassuring. "No need to, Trixie doesn't need you to act scared as you are very safe in Trixie's presence. Also you are very powerful and can easily travel between worlds?" He simply nodded. I mentaly facehoof as he lets out a chuckle. Now that I think about it. Why was he, out of all other possible options, the one that had been summoned? A quick glance from him told me that he had heard that.
After staring for a few seconds at each other, I asked the question. "Why were you the one that Trixie summoned?" Without thinking (I had a feeling that this would be a recurring event) he answered. "Cause were in tune." "Huh?" He answered before I could ask more, again. "It's supposed to be a one size fits all summoning spell. Preparing the spell is always the same, but at the end you ad some thought or object that represents what you're trying to summon. Or the name itself if you know it. If you want, lets say something angry, then you put something that represents anger. The more you put, the more accurate the summoning."
It quickly came to my mind on what exact thought had summoned it. "So because Trixie thought about using you to uuh... give ponies that have wronged Trixie rightful retribution." He nodded. "It has more to do with it being petty, but yes." He added.
"Ok, Trixie orders you to bring Trixie back to Equestria."
And that's how Trixie got out of that place and proceed to give Twilight what she deserved. Before being declared the greatest pony of all time by Celestia and Luna. And Trixie saved all of Equestria multiple time. And became an alicorn. And did...
"Trixie."
I was suddenly pulled back into that place. The first thing I saw was Cosmo shaking me. "What happened?" I asked weakly. "You fell face first on the floor when I told you that I couldn't bring you home. And your nose is bleeding again. Cause you fell." "WHY?!" I shouted indignantly. "You nodded when Trixie asked you if you could?"
He shrugged. "I can easily travel through worlds and bring others with me, when i'm... how do I put it..." He lifted one of his front hooves and snapped his fingers while thinking. It took me way too long to notice that his hoof had been replaced by a hand. The fact that I wasn't very worried by it bothered me. "Not bound to someone, usually a creature that summoned me." His hand turned back into a hoof.
"Ok, so how do we solve that?" I asked with a fairly desperate tone. "You unsummon me, but" "But what?!" I had been surprisingly calm in this situation (in other words not calm at all but not panicking) but the darkness, silence and being in presence with what looked like a very powerful ethereal being, was starting to really unnerve me.
"If you were to unsummon me, I would be sent back from where I had been summoned. And be unable to come back for a few months. It's a failsafe against potentially evil beings." He nonchalantly sat down. Seemingly not bothered by all this. I glare at him. Clearly noticing my glare, he became a bit uncomfortable. "So how do I get back?!" I say both with fear and anger in my face. He looks more uncomfortable, before answering. "I don't know, it changes depending on where we are."
I feel my stomach sink. Being stuck here, potentially in danger, with someone who was only here because I had, accidently, dragged him here. The fear I felt by far outweighed any anger I had. I was so scared that I didn't even notice that I had spoken in first person. I also still felt weak from my bleeding and my nose was still gushing blood and possibly broken.
Before I could say anything else, we were distracted by a bat-like screeching(which I knew because of a firework show ruined by bats). We looked towards the hallway from which the sound came. As the sound became louder. Cosmo's put himself in a defensive pose.
We were then distracted again as a piece of the ceiling above us fell down. Then half of it fell down onto Cosmo's.
Then the entire floor under my hooves fell down. And the two other floors under it also collapsed.
After falling three floors we landed. Both snouth first or more specifically nose first. And then a pile of debris fell directly on top of Cosmo's burying him under it.
The only reason I was still conscious was because of my panic. And the pain from what definitely had to be a broken snout or at least nose. But both made it very hard to concentrate. I was engulfed in darkness, unable to cast any kind of spell because of that. I did notice that we were in a hallway three floors lower than what we used to be a few second ago
But I could still hear the bat-like screeshes coming closer and closer. And as they got closer I could also start hearing what sounded like claws scratching the floor. I quickly looked around in the hopes of finding somewhere to hide or a not buried in rubble Cosmo's. Which wasn't the case as he was very buried. Under rubble. And a bathtub.
I turned around after hearing a screech that was louder than the rest. The creature responsible for the sound had gotten close enough that I could see his slightly glowing eyes even in the dark. I was about to run in the opposite direction, but I could see more of those creatures coming from that direction because of the glow of their eyes.
I climbed up the pile of rubble in the center of the hallway. Maybe having the high ground might give me a bigger chance of surviving. This hope was quickly dashed as another creature jumped down from the hole in the ceiling, only noticeable because of the thud it made as it landed.
I could feel tears streaming down my cheeks, caused both by fear and pain. The scared and terrified Trixie was facing an awful dead. I desperately tried to make some light with my horn. Maybe it would blind them.
I managed to create a tiny pathetic light for a few seconds. Just enough to see a pipe poking out in the pile of rubble. In a short moment of lucidity I knew that it could be used as a weapon. I picked it up, as the tiny light went out. I held the sturdy pipe in my front right hoof.
I could see her. I could see Twilight looking at me, with a smirk on my face, taunting me. It might have been caused by the pain that I was feeling, probably. But I could see her. See her blasting those creatures away with a few spell. And I couldn't live with the idea that she was better than me. Not again.
My fear was slowly being replaced by anger.
The simple THOUGHT of Twilight surviving what I couldn't enraged me. I had done so much. Spent so much money, travelled so much, fought so many monsters, made so many enemies and so much more. I didn't care if it had been two years since Trixie had last seen Twilight or that she had become a Princess, The GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE was NOT going to let those creatures stop her.
My fear, Trixie's fear, was being replaced by utter hatred.
I stood up on my two hind hooves, holding the pipe with my two front hooves. It may have been dark, but I could see the glow in their eyes and hear their growls and screeches. Those things thought that Trixie was helpless. They were wrong. I was now reinvigorated by my hate for Twilight.
The first creature that leapt onto me had it's front teeth smashed in by a pipe. Another one lept from the hole above, stupidly screeching as it did. I heard it coming and barely dodged, cutting myself on splinters. I felt too much hatred to even feel pain. Two glowing orbs were getting closed. I flung the pipe in between them, sending their owner tumbling back whining.
Two others jumped at me. Making so much noise that I could hear where they came from. I turned around, hitting one in the throat sending him flying in the other one. A smarter and sneakier one managed to get close enough and grab one of my hooves. I slammed the pipe on his hand, hearing it break, before slamming it again in it's snouth.
I would survive this. I would go back to Equestria. And I WILL give Twilight what she deserved.
Another one took a hit from my pipe beneath it's jaw. One jumped down from the floor above. I hit it while it was still in the air. They got wiser after I broke the arm of an eight one. They stopped jumping at me.
They were moving around me, as more and more joined them, for a whole minute. I kept my ears up listening for any sound. I was extremely lucky that those things were so loud. If not I would have been taken by surprise by the first one.
I tried to guess which one would jump at me by looking at their eyes. But I couldn't look at all of them at the same time. And I was exhausted and numb. At least I didn't feel any more pain because of the numbness.
It looked like one of them was about to jump. I braced myself to hit it. I then saw the two orbs that were its eyes get off the ground and into the air. A big screech was then heard before it reached me, distracting the both of us. It went of course missing me.
A loud banging could then be heard. More rubble and splinters fell from above. The banging got louder and louder and as it got close enough a light appeared above me. It then got brighter. I slowly looked up, sweating bullets.
A big glowing eye stared back at me. It shined bright enough that I could get a proper look at it's long elongated snout and big teeth. It also had four arms, which were holding it up through the hole in the ceiling. It was big enough to swallow me whole. It's eye looked around taking everything in.
Any courage I had and all of the hatred I felt had disappeared like a bad magic trick (Like what happened in Baltimare). I Lost all my remaining dignity as my bladder was emptied. Any hope I had was just gone, poof, nothing left.
As I was about to start crying, as the creature looked back at me with a hungry glare licking its lips, the rubble underneath me started shaking. I steadied myself, to avoid falling. Fortunately the big creature was also distracted by it. The rubble shifted as if something was digging itself out from it.
Cosmo's then popped out of the pile. Very rapidly. So rapidly that I couldn't dodge it, as his snout hit my snout. Breaking it even more. Causing both of us to scream in pain.
After managing not to fall from the pile and steadying myself I took a good look at Cosmo's. His snout was crumbled and a darker ethereal liquid was seeping out of his nose. He then grabbed a sink covered in the same liquid and threw it at one of the tinier creatures. Which were now easier to see because of the two new light sources.
"Why are ponies so fragile!?" He shouted as he held his snout clearly in pain. He then looked up and around seeing and then at my sweating, bleeding, pissed body. "Oh." Was the only sound that came out of his mouth.
As the bigger creature prepared to lunge, he quickly touched my bloody pipe and put his hand around my horn before lunging at the creature. Cosmo's grew in size and looked more lizardlike and slender before slamming into it. Both he and the bigger creature, let's call it cyclops as it had one eye, wrestled each other and fell on one side of the hallway crushing some of the tinier creatures. They tried to scramble away as the two giants fought, biting and scratching at each other.
My horn and pipe were glowing. My pipe then turned in a mace. It felt very comfortable in my hooves. I felt pain in my horn, but I could also feel my magic coming back. I tried using a light spell and it worked. It hurt but it wasn't too straining.
I smiled and looked at the creatures. They were putting their arms in front of their eye to shield them from the bright light. They looked like strange elongated bats without wings and longer legs and arms ending with bear-like claws.
"BOW BEFORE THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE YOU MISERABLE BEASTS!" I used a voice amplification spel. It scared them but they didn't bow. I quickly used a pain killing spell and an energy spell, which basically like drinking two barrels of coffee in one go. It also tasted like coffee. My amulet was shining as I casted those spells.
Now that I felt much better I lunged at the nearest creature. Oddly enough I kept the mace in my hooves instead of levitating it, but that wasn't important.
They took to long to properly react. By the time that they actually attacked me I had already send four of them flying with my mace and another one with a spell. The first ones that lunged at me slammed into a quickly casted shield. I then let the shield implode sending them flying. I dodged an attack from my left, thanks to my heightened senses. I then slammed my mace into the creature breaking it's arm into pieces.
The remaining ones then got wise and ran and The wounded ones crawled away. I stood upright, panting. Those spells would only temporarily relieve me. I then heard clapping from behind me. I turned around and saw Cosmo's clapping. "Wow. I'm need to say that of all the people to have ever summoned me, you are by far one of the more impressive ones." His slowly shifted back into an alicorn. "Trixie is nothing but impressive. Though Trixie is also thankful for the timely save."
He let out a chuckle and then grabbed his snout. "I'm happy to help. I would have helped sooner, but getting hit by a sink in the face is extremely painful, even for beings like me." He then twisted his snout back in place. It sounded horrible but I would love for my own snout to be unbroken. His other wounds started healing. I looked behind him and saw that that part of the hallway was in ruins. The only sign of the cyclops that I could spot was a very detached arm.
I put the mace on the ground, as it hadn't turned back into a pipe, and sat on the ground. I opened my spellbook and tried casting any healing spell that I had. Cosmo's also started helping me, healing multiple of my wounds. He didn't say anything about the fact that I had soiled myself, which was smart of him. Oddly enough the past events, which started like five minutes ago, made me feel stronger.
If I could defeat those things, then my chances of taking my revenge on Twilight would be higher. Actually... "You said that the creatures here wouldn't be dangerous?" I inquired. He shook his head.
"I said that the native creatures weren't much of a danger, like those tiny ones. The big one isn't from here just like us. And they usually don't c..."
He was suddenly interrupted as holes were blown into walls, more pieces of the ceiling collapsed and hundreds of screeches and screams could be heard from all around us. One side of the hallway was engulfed in flames. Dozens of beings covered, not made out of fire, crawled out the fire.
Creatures tiny and big (but none as big as the cyclopes) crawled out of every hole rushing toward sour direction.
Cosmo's stood on his hind hooves, his front ones turning back into clawed hands. I could feel a lot of magic emanating from him, clearly preparing to cast multiple spells. I also stood on my hind legs, grabbed the mace, my mace, into my right hoof and prepared my spells. My amulet glowed maliciously. I thought about Twilight and about how I would get my revenge.
I felt oddly not horribly exhausted, I thought as I threw a twelve legged monster back with a spell. I don't feel any pain, I thought as another wound appeared on my body. I still have plenty of magic to use, I lied to myself as I audibly groaned after casting another spell. I was still alive, as a three jawed creature tried to use said jaws to bite my face off.
Adrenaline is one hell of a drug. And also magic.
At least I only had to worry about a tiny fraction of those creatures. Cosmo's was taking care of most of them. His spells easily took care of any of the big creatures. And most of those that remained ignored it. I only had to fight against a hoof full of them. Still, not an easy task.
As tiny and weak as they might be, they still had sharp claws and teeth. Which my soft pony hide couldn't protect me against. Unlike Cosmo's, as I saw claws the size of barrels break as they hit him. Which felt strange after seeing his snout which had been broken by a sink. Sinks must have been more effective weapons than I thought.
I dodged a slow seven fingered claw swipe, which still cut some of my mane of. I hit It's hand back with my mace causing all seven of those fingers to bend in the wrong way. A second hit silenced it's pained screeches.
I was extremely lucky that those creatures were very slow and didn't bother trying to dodge. Because I had no idea how to use a weapon. The only thing I did was swing it around in big wide swipes. I had seen movies and attended a reenactment (which had ended in me fleeing from an angry pitchfork and torch wielding mob). I had seen those actors and reenactors using maces and swords masterfully. They would be ashamed of my unholly display.
As I hit another three jawed creature with a very slow, wide and easy to dodge attack with my mace, I could hear a big, very familiar screech. I then saw a big glowing eye appear in my side of the hallway, another cyclops. It then started crawling towards me as it tore through the hallway that was too tight for it.
Wait, it had a big eye and if I remember correctly from my old biology lessons from school (aka getting hit in my big fragile eyes) eyes are fragile. And he had a massive one, so theoretically it would also be very fragile. Also eyes are located in the eye sockets which are holes in the skull. And behind that socket lies the brain. So...
Theoretically, if I fired a spell through the eye, which should theoretically be fragile, it would pierce through it and hit the brain, which should theoretically be located behind the socket, and kill it.
In theory.
No time to ponder or think as the cyclops got closer. A simple drill spell, used to drill through earth and stone. I fired the very inaccurate spell at a range that it wasn't meant to be used. The alicorn amulet gave it enough extra power to hit its target.
I wanted to puke after hearing the eye pop. A horrible squishy sound that I won't bother describing because of how horrible it was. The sight was just as awful as the sound. Ughh, how the liquids in the eye, the brain matter and the blood mixed together, creating an unsightly concoction. I would love to have bleach on me. To pour it on my eyes. And also in my ears in hopes that it reaches my brain.
But it worked. The cyclops slumped over, twitching a bit before it stopped moving altogether. It's big body also partially blocked the hallway, forcing anything trying to come through to crawl over its body. This would make things easier and give me a bit of breathing ground. It also scared some of the tinier creatures enough to cause them to flee.
I was distracted by my amulet which was glowing brighter. I could feel the power emanating from it growing. Like if it were feeding. But on what? violence? The pain I was feeling? Or...
I was hit by a shockwave caused by an enormous sound before I could finish that thought. I instinctively folded my ears up because of it. A shockwave which sounded or felt very similar to the kind of sound that whales make (I was once thrown off a boat by the crew while being near whales). Beautiful experience though.
Whatever had caused it was clearly very big and was situated behind the cyclops body.
Said body then proceed to be dragged of by something. The massive body that barely fitted the hallway and destroyed the walls as it crawled around. It was being dragged away at such speed, like if it were paper, that I felt my stomach sink. Something had grabbed it. Something massive.
I put my hooves on my ears as another shout was heard. So did some of the creatures around me, clearly in pain from the sound. I was then grabbed from behind by Cosmo's. He then twisted around, somehow putting me on his back, before blowing a wall up and running through it.
He blew his way through the walls, as another whalelike sound could be heard. We then exited the building through a window. And everything was...
...différent.
When I first came here everything was dark, unbelievably dark. The only light coming from the sky didn't illuminate anything. But now every and I do mean every light was on. Street lamps shone in showing all the details of desolate, broken, empty streets. Lights could be seen through every window showing the unpainted walls.
But all of that was overshadowed by the massive beam of light shining in the horizon coming from the ground and reaching up into the sky.
From which we were running away.
We quickly ran away from that clustertruck, though they tried to pursue but we quickly outran them. By we I mean Cosmo's as I sat on his back riding him like...
Like a pony? Ugh no, I've seen some videos and pictures and while they might be fun to watch I'm not doing that with him.
"Please don't think about that." He said, reminding me that he could hear me thinking about him. "I don't usually go that far before the fifth date." He winked. I blushed a bit. "The... The great and powerful Trixie doesn't care about that. The curious and ingenious Trixie wants to know what happened right now?"
We were now inside a normal house, sitting in the living room, curtains closed. Cosmo’s was nonchalantly laying on a couch. "That light in the sky, that's a rift between worlds. Allowing the creatures that we fought to travel back and forth between worlds."
That was worrying. Well... "Before you ask, your summoning might have played a part in opening it. In theory." What? How could I have done that? "It's because..."
"Stop, you will answer Trixie's question after Trixie asks them. So how is Trixie responsible for this?" Cosmo's let out a chuckle. "There are plenty of creatures and people that knew you summoned me the second you did it. And because you didn't precise who you wanted to summon, it allowed others to jump in and open a rift. Not a guarantee though."
"Ok, so what was that loud noise that hurt Trixie's ears?" Cosmo's then took a much darker look. "That was a, in your language, void jumper. The sound was hollower so I would guess a matriarch." "Are they dangerous?" He looked at me grimly. "To me no, to you yes. And because you summoned me, that means that I am connected to you and that limits what I can do, depending on your emotions and what you want."
I didn't like this, but we just had to avoid it. Did we? "Trixie doesn't need to worry about that? Trixie just needs to leave back to Equestria and will Trixie be safe?" He shook his head. "It would follow you back to your world and eat it. And they're not animals. They're smart and they can plan." I gulped.
Strangely, instead of panicking, I was just tired. The adrenaline and spells that had been allowing me to continue had stopped. The wounds and exhaustion endly caught up to me. I dropped my mace, which still hadn't turned back into a pipe. And collapsed.
Starlight, Unicorn and Twilight's student. She was now busy having fun with Joe Bagel the female illusionist unicorn and magician (not to be confused with Joe Donut the male earth pony and coffee shop owner). Joe Bagel was Starlight's best friend and she couldn't imagine being a friend with anypony else. Yup, Bagel was her best friend (and also first one).
Starlight just couldn't imagine herself with someone else as her first and best friend. Yup, Bagel was the best friend anypony could ever ask for. Having somepony else as a friend was an abhorrent idea. All the adventures they had gone through wouldn't exist. The thought hurt, especially now as they had just defeated Chrysalis and reformed all of the other changelings. They had not done it alone, bur Bagel had played a massive part in it.
Starlight couldn't help but recall their first meeting. Bagel had a very short mane, because she had to shave it two weeks before. The events leading to that had left her slightly depressed and in a bad mood. Which had caused their first meeting to be very sour. But after putting their differences aside they quickly became best friends. Bagel then told Starlight about why she had to shave her mane.
half her mane had been burned off after an unfortunate meeting with another unicorn pretending to be a magician. Said meeting involved fireworks blowing up in the wrong places. She had also called that unicorn a shallow narcissist and some other stuff that she wouldn't repeat. Starlight was sceptical at first, but after being shown some old newspaper and other proof, Starlight had no doubt in what Bagel said.
This made her think. Starlight and Trixie being friends. Ughh, what a horrible thought. Starlight being friends with a pony like that. What a horrible abhorrent thought. Starlight simply couldn't imagine herself being friends with a pony like that. She felt sick at the idea. She'd rather eat a cactus. Such shallow pony wouldn't even want to be friends in the first place. Starlight felt lucky and happy that she had never met Trixie. It wouldn't end well. Probably in explosions and with that pony being chased away by an angry mob. God, could you imagine it being friends with Trixie instead of the much better Bagel. Starklight couldn't help but thank Celestia and Luna for having met Bagel instead of trixie.
Also for some reason Starlight felt a big dislike towards the color light blue.
"Read books, they're fun." - Some desperate bookstore owner.
Hot water never felt so good. I was so happy that the shower worked. I could feel the dust, mud and more grimly blood and piss wash off. My bandages were getting wet, but I'll just have to put new ones on. Fortunately the house we had taken shelter in had a very big first aid kit inside. Plenty of bandages to spare.
Actually the house was fully stocked with pretty much everything. Clean clothes, fresh food, intact books, stocked med-kits and plenty of pillows. The house itself was very clean, with there being no dust anywhere.
Another pleasant surprise was the fact that I only had a few shallow cuts and little bruises. Which after fighting creatures with claws the size of my head was hard to believe. Just as surprising as my nose and snout not being broken. But that was pretty much the only good news.
We, me and Cosmo's, were surrounded as we could hear and see all kinds of creatures skittering around through the walls and windows. Luckily all the other noise, ironically caused by them, hid us very well. Though Cosmo's did not seem bothered at all, I was terrified.
I picked up a bar of soap and started rubbing on a particularly resistant patch of dried blood. Most of it wasn't even mine, which meant splotches of green, red, blue, brown and black blood covered my body. But I had to be careful with any open wounds that we hadn't yet spotted. They may be the tiniest ones but putting soap on them still hurts a lot.
After having washed all of the filth of my aching body, I stepped out of the shower and took a towel out of the pile laying neatly in the corner. I started drying myself, which did hurt a bit as my body was aching from all the fighting from a few hours ago. I winced as I rubbed one of my wounds a little too hard with the towel.
Once I was fully dry, I took almost an hour to replace all of the wet bandages with new clean ones. After throwing the towel in an empty basket and the bandages in the trash.
I walked through the hallway back towards the living room. It was short but eerie, as the walls were covered with empty picture frames. Those that weren't empty contained pictures of the dark streets or of the sky. Most doors lay open and there were a few empty vases laying around. However it all looked brand new and clean.
I reached the living room. It was... gaunt. It wasn't dark because of the working light, but its dark colored paint and closed curtains gave the packed room a claustrophobic feeling. The room itself had multiple bookshelves and a big oversized table in the center. There was also a couch and multiple chairs which simply lay there haphazardly. It made moving around very hard.
But none of that was really important, as I saw Cosmo's laying on the couch. He was busy nonchalantly reading a book, clearly not bothered by my suffering.
He noticed me and looked away from his book to give me a glance before shoving his face back into his book. "You forgot a spot." He pointed at my leg. I looked at my leg and saw a reddish spot. I grumbled and gave him a baleful glare. "Trixie found the soap to be of low quality. But that's not important. Trixie just wonders how good that book must be." My words were dripping with sarcasm. But he either didn't notice it or decided to ignore it.
"It's named the book of nothing. If you look around you'll see that that's a recurring theme in all of those book titles. But this one book is quite interesting. listen to this." He then started reading a fragment of the book. "...As it pulls everything it can into its grasp, so that it can become its own entity, with it's own life and it's own future. As everyda..." "Trixie doesn't care about your book. trixie cares only about getting out of here alive." I interrupted him quite rudely, but his behavior was really grinding on my patience.
"Shame, i'm sure you would have liked it. So what do you want us to do." He smirked as he said that. Which made me furious. "Trixie doesn't know, you're the expert. How will Trixie get out of here and back home!?" He stood up and sat on the couch. "You'll have to learn to travel in between worlds." He said that, like it was nothing. Giving a quick wave with his hand and raising his shoulders a bit.
"And HOW does Trixie does that?!" He then snapped his finger, causing a tiny beam of light to appear and float on the table. He then lifted three of his fingers. "There are currently three ways for you to gain that ability. The first one would be for you to learn it. How to find and open rifts and also how to channel specific powers through your body. But for that you need a teacher and time." He put one of his fingers down. "The second would be to find an artifact or object that would allow you to do that. And while there should definitely be one or more in this world, you would need to find it which isn't easy especially when you don't know what to search."
He put another finger down and then pointed his last finger at the light beam on the table. "The third would be to reach the rift and then absorb some of it. This would give you the power to travel with ease. It would also... to put it simply it would open something in your body allowing you to very easily use those powers. You would still need to learn a bit, but that I can teach you."
I looked at the tiny beam on the table. It wasn't a simple beam, as at the bottom I could see a strange maelstrom whirling around. The beam itself hurt to look at. "Can't you teach Trixie how to travel through worlds?" He shook his head. "I was born with those powers. I can teach you how to use those powers, but I cannot teach you how to unlock them. Also that would take at least a Decade or two."
I sat down on a chair and slumped down into it. Only three options. Only one was actually feasible. "How easy would it be for Trixie to reach the rift?" Cosmo answered instantly without hesitations. "Very hard." I actually doubted that, as I had seen him fight and run away with ease.
"Couldn't you just teleport trixie to the rift? Or run towards it very quickly?" He then laughed. And kept laughing for well over a minute. "Why are you laughing?" I asked this, genuinely confused. He slowly stopped laughing, still chuckling to himself. "It's just, I am talking about such a complicated topic with someone who has no idea or knowledge about said topic. And this has never happened in my life. Never. And I am Ancient. People always and I do mean always had a modicum of knowledge about travelling through worlds even if a bit."
"So Trixie is stupid?." I acted offended, but in reality I wasn't. No matter how you put it, I was like a fish out of water. He chuckled some more. “Oh no, not at all. I've talked to beings who knew a lot more than you did and that could only be described as moronic. I'll alter the space time continuum, for the imperium, I'll conquer that weak reality, and so forth." He put on a mocking tone while saying that. "That last one was hilarious, seeing wizards and knight in shining armor get defeated by a peasant army with rifle and tanks."
There were some words that didn't make any sense to me in that context. And I had a feeling that that would be a recurring theme when talking about travelling through worlds and realms. But I understood what he said. It reassured me a bit. "It's also hilarious when they implode when they wield power that they don't understand thinking that they'll become gods." He then destroyed any reassurance that I had gained a few seconds ago.
For once he noticed my distress. "You should eat something." He simply said that with a worried look on his face. Now that he mentioned it I was starving. I just nodded in agreement. I then followed him as we headed to the kitchen.
I shoved another cookie into my mouth. I had already eaten through two (tiny I assure you) boxes. Cosmo's meanwhile was busy baking a cake. He looked very chipper, whistling to himself. While he had four arms cooking and baking the cake, a fifth one was holding a book. I couldn't help but think that he would be great at multitasking.
I threw the box of cookies away when I emptied it. I searched through the fresh for something healthier. Because to my knowledge I hadn't eaten In well over 24 hours. I had only now noticed that. Fighting for your life seems to be a good way to distract yourself.
I also thought about something Cosmo had said. He had said that he was ancient and that he was born with the powers to travel through worlds. I had no idea of what kind of being that he was. "cosmo's how old are you and what are you exactly?" I asked while taking a bit of a tomato. "I'm 4 trillion 545 billion and 899 million years old. Also what I am is hard to explain because of the language barrier."
WHAT?! I spat the piece of tomato out in shock. The number was unimaginable. Unless. "Are you..." he interrupted me. "In Equestrian years. I visited your world and know a lot about it's day, month and year cycles. So yes I am that old."
You know, I shouldn't be surprised that he was immortal. I mean, equestria was ruled by two immortal alicorns. I just never thought about anyone or anything being that old. "I'm not immortal. we can be killed and I have around one hundred and fifty to two hundred thousand years left to live." If I had something in my mouth, then I would have spitted it out.
I needed time to think. I had gone through so much in so little time. And the way he bluntly told me all of that did not help. "How?" He raised an eyebrow but seemed to understand what I meant. "I know this because all those older than me are already dead. Through either being killed or naturally. The latter is quite a beautiful sight." "And you're not worried?!" I shouted this out as he said all of that seemingly unbothered by his own mortality.
"It was a surprise when the first of my kind died. But meh, None of us expected to live eternally. Also that happened around five hundred thousand years ago, plenty of time to get used to it." I... I actually understood that. I understood that I was talking with what could best be described as a god. He had an unfathomable knowledge and experience that I would never obtain. While I was busy standing there with my mouth open, he went back to waiting for his cake to bake.
I really needed to stop thinking about that. My head was hurting and I would probably end up popping a blood vessel. I might actually have popped one as my nose started bleeding.
I took a bite out of the tomato that I was still holding in my hoof. First eat, then panic, then I can have an existential crisis. Yeah that's a good plan, I thought as I shewed on my tomato.
After having a mild existential crisis, I felt slightly better. My wounds had been bandaged and I had eaten. I was still hungry, as the fifth box of cookies I was currently eating will show.
The mace, which used to be a pipe, was currently holding my attention. I had attented reenactments, which ussually ended badly, and many of the more hardcore participants had real maces with them. So I know that they're usually much heavier than the one I currently held in my hooves. They also didn't have a blue glow. It was just another question on top of many others.
But at least I had a weapon that I somehow knew how to use. Not going to complain about that though, as I shoved a hoof full of cookies inside my mouth. The noise of chewing was surprisingly calming. At least when you had recently escaped a life or death situation.
I would have to practice with it, but first I needed a plan. After peeking through one of the windows I could see the big light in the horizon that was the rift. I could also see the multiple fires burning alongside it and the moving outlines of what had to be some massive creatures which would sometimes swipe at the ground. And from time to time a building could be seen flying in the air. Likely thrown around by one of those creatures.
While on the topic of non-pony creatures I had no idea where Cosmo's was. The last time I saw him, less than half an hour ago, he was lying in a corner reading some book. I hated that someone that acted so casual in this situation knew so much more than me. But that was probably why he was so casual. Knowledge is power after all.
I also looked at my amulet. Which now had a faint red glow. It's bright glow had slowly gotten fainter. The glow had appeared after I had hit the first creature with a pipe. And then grew brighter and brighter after every hit. The question was, was It caused by the violence itself or by any blood that had been spilled. And what did it mean? The alicorn amulet had already been disappointing, so I didn't need for it to be fueled by blood. Way too creepy and impractical.
On the topic of disappointing magical objects, my spell books. One was made by me, so it was obvious why it was disappointing. The other one, which took me moths to properly translate. And now I learned that whoever had written it was dyslexic. The fact that I had gotten stuck here because of a simple spelling slash translation error was infuriating. I was tempted to burn it, but it's other spells had proven useful. So it wouldn't burn, yet.
Well, I had made a list of things that went wrong, I could now focus on solving them. Step one: find Cosmo's.
Easier said than done. I had been searching for him for well over an hour. There were plenty of traces of him. A canvas with fresh paint on it, A still hot oven, The words "I was here" written on a wall... That last one felt like it had been directed at me. This did nothing to help my mood. My mace was gripped tightly in my hoof. I had every intention of hitting him. I was now going to search through the attic.
"That's just mean." Cosmo then slammed the door of the attic open. I would have been scared by it, were it not the fact that the door had been slammed into my face. I was physically thrown back onto the ground with a bloody nose. "Oh, sorry." His sheepish apology made me even angrier. He then helped me back onto my hooves.
I then slashed my mace into his own snouth. His snouth now looked like crumpled paper. "Ow." He did seem to actually be hurt. "I deserved that." He then grabbed his snout and twisted it back into place. I was carefully touching my own snout, trying to feel it was broken. Fortunately it didn't feel like it. Actually , now that we were on the subject of my mace, after I had smashed it in his face, it would now be a good time to speak about it.
"What about this? Trixie is curious about why it hasn't turned back into a pipe?" He eyed me suspiciously as I held the mace up, wary of me hitting him again. "You did use magic to turn a pipe into this. But it's not temporary? isn't it?" He shook his head. "I literally melted the pipe and then forged it into a mace. In mere seconds. Things like star and cosmic fire are really powerful. Bad material does lower its quality, but not by that much" The second he said that, a question popped into my head.
"Can you make armor for Trixie?" "Yes." I mentally cheered as he said that. "But I'll need materials, like more pipes. Not a problem though." I was quite giddy at the idea of getting a set of protective armor covering all the fragile parts of my body. Also known as my whole entire body. Even if it was really uncomfortable as long as it could protect me from things like dying, then it would be worth it.
"But that's not why you searched for me." He raised an eyebrow as he said that. Not a surprise that he knew that, he probably knew that I had been searching for him. And he definitely hid from me just to annoy me. It did make hitting him more satisfying. "Trixie wants to know how Trixie will get back home." He put a hand on his chin, thinking. "It's a pretty easy plan. Get to the rift and allow you to absorb some of its power. Getting there will be the hard part."
"Can't you just teleport there? Or run there really fast?" Cosmo was clearly very powerful, he was so Celestia Damned old. And if anything was powerful (or older) than him, well that was just terrifying. "Teleporting near a rift is NOT a good idea. Also I don't want to face a matriarch while bound to you." Buck, I mentally thought. "So we sneak." He added. It wasn't what I expected, but if we could avoid fighting against anything I wouldn't complain.
"And that's all I have to say. Unless you have better idea." He said very nonchalantly. It was getting very, and I do mean very annoying. But it made sense. The behavior between an expert and someone who has no idea what they had gotten in would be obvious.
"Trixie doesn't have a better plan. But could you make some armor for Trixie." Some kind of card in four of his claws. "Those are four of my many blacksmithing licenses. I've always loved anything technical. I'll gladly make you something to protect you for the fun of it." I got hopeful. I expected him to dash them instantly. I was surprised when he didn't. "I will take some time to make it. I could make it in an instant. But that would be an insult to all blacksmitters to have ever existed."
He then put on a very dramatic pose. Then pointed at my mace. "That thing is an insult to my skill. Made in a hurry. Can't you see how horrible it is." I looked at it. I actually found it to have a nice shine. And it's blue shine and starry look were very enjoyable. "Horrible I say. Abominable even." His tone was purposefully dramatic. The lightheartedness of his current action did put a smile on my face. I don't know if it was just him being him or if he actually tried to cheer me up.
"You should rest and prepare until I'm ready." I pulled my spell book out. Things might not be that bad.
I was searching for useful spells in my spell books. Scratching and writing some notes in my personal book. I was also reading the one with a goat skull on it but with extreme prejudice. It was too useful to be discarded, but I was in this situation because of a writing error. But there were some useful large area spells.
Also a surprising amount of stun spells in such grim looking book. I was now practicing an electricity spell that split in multiple arcs. I put multiple vases and other miscellaneous objects in the only room that wasn't tight or packed. Even then the walls and closets were covered in tiny scorch marks. The spell itself wasn't really tiring and it wasn't hard to learn. It would obviously be useless against anything bigger than, let's say, a purple alicorn. But it would be very useful, and fairly painful, against said hypothetical alicorn. Said alicorn was definitely Twilight. My end goal hadn't changed.
The only good thing about my situation is that I would gain a lot of experience in new spells that would prove very helpful when I would end up facing Twilight. And amusing. Especially those like the one that caused the target to sneeze a lot. And that one spell that would cause all hair and fur to fall off. Actually a surprising amount of spells seemed to be very petty. Which is odd seeing as the spell book looked like it would contain a lot of evil dark magic spells. But none seemed to be very "evil". And very seemed lethal.
With lethal I mean the ones that could literally do nothing but kill and are useless against anything else. Because even simple spells like levitation could be deadly if used properly. I didn't actually want to kill Twilight, just humiliate her. And have her grovel in front of me.
I salivated at the thought. I also felt peckish. I had been training for a while. A light snack and maybe a short nap would be a pretty good idea. And maybe I should find a backpack and pack some food and other utilitarian items. I had no idea how long it would take to reach the rift. But I also didn't think that finding food would be very hard. It was likely that most buildings would be as packed with food and items just as this one.
I left for the kitchen. While going through the hallway I saw Cosmo working on own set of armor. I had obviously taken a few peeks in the past few hours. I saw him bend and mely knifes, pots, spoons and more with blue, purple and red flames. He would then bend them into rudimentary shapes which would then be combined in a very nice looking set of armor. I could see armor for all of my hooves laying on the ground. He also had enchanted some of it. Which would potentially be useful against a certain pony. Which might be purple. Cosmo's also seemed to have fun forging it.
I started chugging some fresh cold milk. Cosmo then entered the kitchen grabbing a box of cereals. "So how is it progressing?" Cosmo opened the box before answering. "Good. But I would like to have better material. But I promise you will love it. If not I have a no refund policy." I chuckled. So did he. "You know this remind..." He was then interrupted by a loud crash.
And he then dropped onto the ground and dug his claws into the floor. "Brace for impact!" Before my brain could process what had happened I was slammed into the wall as gravity shifted.
I could feel my body and the entire room rotating around. I was being thrown around with everything else that wasn't bolted to the ground. Including sharp knives and a very heavy fridge.
"Uh, god he's dead, so dead, so very dead. So ‘censored’ dead." - IT after dropping a glass of water on his pc.
A pink mare could be seen working on a massive cake inside a slightly cake shaped building. "This is a fifteen layered cake. Thirteen chocolate, two cream and secret strawberry layer." She said to herself as she was alone in the room. "you silly goof, you're here." She said to no one. "I'm talking to you." She said against no one, which seemed to be a recurring theme for her.
"Mmpf. You're no fun." She complained against the air. "You know, most people would consider what you're doing very rude." She said to what must have been an imaginary friend. "mmrff, well you're not getting any cake."
The leg of a table, which was big enough to support a big cake, naped. "What, noO..." Fortunately no cake was on that table. "Ok, I get it. Trixie bad, Joe Bagel good, bla bla bla, worldbuilding. Happy now. Please say yes because even though you're rude I still want you to be happy. 'Cause if you're grumpy thenotherpeoplewillbegrumpyandthenthey'llmakeotherpeoplegrumpyandthen..."
The scene then changed to outside the building. "I CAN STILL HEAR YOU!" The cake then imploded.
"nnnnnnnnnnnnnNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHH..."
Twilight felt bad. She knew it wasn't her fault, but she still couldn't help but feel slightly guilty. She stared at the burned caravan. It had belonged to Trixie. But now she was as good as dead. Twilight could sense the magic in the air. Other unicorns wouldn't know what it was, but she did as Celestia had teached her once. Travelling through worlds was dangerous. That's why Celestia showed her how to identify it and told her about all of its dangers.
And Trixie was now stuck who knows where. What made Twilight feel bad was the fact that Trixie had been pushed into the corner. While Twilight was travelling, she found a newspaper containing a story about Trixie. A strange story to put it mildly. So twilight when to investigate. She was outraged by the incompetence of the local law enforcement. Everyone in that town believed Trixie to be guilty of some crime and had shaved her out of the town. Twilight instantly found proof of Trixie's innocence by literally lifting a stone.
And then she entered the rabbit hole. She went from town to town searching for all of Trixies actions. It always ended the same way. Trixie enters, something happens and then she gets chased out. Most of the time she was definitely guilty. But when the worst crimes and disasters happened, Trixie was without a doubt innocent yet the town folks never bothered to investigate what had happened.
Twilight got angrier with each and every town she visited. Lots of ponies lost their jobs and a lot more got berated. One of the worst cases is when a filly disappeared. The filly had gotten stuck and was in danger of being killed by a wild animal. She was then saved by Trixie. The clues seemed to show that she had then fallen into a river while the filly went back home. And even though the filly kept repeating that she was saved by an unicorn whose description was exactly the same as Trixie, the townsfolk seemed to ignore it pretending that the filly had come back home on her own. With no help at all.
While they proved unable to hear the filly, they simply couldn't ignore a very mad princess. Said princess currently dreaded what would happen when she would tell what had happened to Trixie to her family.
On a brighter side, Starlight was going on a roadtrip with her great friend Joe Bagel. Bagel was a great pony. Twilight couldn't be happier for Starlight having such a great friend. Such a great, great friend. The best a pony could have. And she was also a very responsible...
I was thrown against the wall. Multiple knives and pans slammed against me. Luckily I wasn't hit. I also saw the fridge leave a dent where it had slammed against.
Before I could do anything I was thrown against the ceiling. And then the wall again. And then another wall. And then the floor. Wall, wall, door, floor, wall, wall,... And so forth. I don't know how, but I managed not to get hit by the heavier and sharper objects. I was hit by a few pots, spoons and plates, but none hit me in the face. About my face, my snout was without a doubt broken. It was usually the first part of my body to hit any of the surrounding walls.
I managed to get a good look at Cosmo. I wasn't really surprised when I saw him smiling as he hung onto the floor. I managed to thrown myself at him, slamming hoof first into his back out of spite. He still clung onto the floor, but I saw the air go out of him. My satisfaction didn't last long as I collided midair with a chair.
It caused me to slam into a wall. Centimeters away from the window. I could feel my heart going up my throat. If I had hit the window, I would have been sent falling to my doom. I couldn't think much about it, as I was sent slamming into the kitchen.
I kept slamming into anything and everything for the next few minutes. Wait, minutes? I might not be a physicist, but from my experience (involving catapults, fireworks, angry pegasi and other miscellaneous ) falling happened very quickly. Meaning that we had been thrown kilometers away or... A thought then krept up my mind. Well more like remembered, when I first woke up. How I had very slowly been falling towards the ground. Was the same thing currently happening?
Had we been thrown so hard into the air that we were rotating midair while theoretically falling very slowly? I'm going to assume yes as we still hadn't crashed onto the ground. Also I gave myself a pat on the back because I had managed to come to that conclusion (even if it might be wrong, as it was only a theory) while I avoided being hit by everything that flew around. There's a reason that I was the great and powe...
I slammed into the fridge after it had slammed into the ceiling.
I saw Cosmo grinning so hard that all of his pitch black teeth were visible, through his mouth that seemed to appear and disappear all the time. He then pushed himself off the ground. "Weeee...." The fridge then slammed into him crushing him against a wall. I couldn't help but laugh at the sight as I clung onto the opposite wall. The window lay on the same wall. A pan slammed into his face as he pushed the fridge off him. Which made me laugh even harder.
I was then interrupted when something slammed beside me, on my left. From the outside. I looked to my left. I could see the outline of a thin four limbed, clawed creature dented into the wall. Like if it had very violently slammed into the wall. Something could then be heard skittering towards the window. It then slammed one of its arms through the window before poking its stubby head with four horns.
It made the mistake of jumping inside. It was immediately caught into the strange gravitational well that the kitchen had become. A blender which was flying around slammed into its face.
Another thump could be heard. And then another. And then more and more faster and faster. Some left dents into the wall, others could be heard crashing through windows all over the house. Cosmo and I stared awkwardly at each other as screeches could be heard. As I flew around the room I grabbed a pan and then hit the first creature that came in through the doorway. It fell over backwards knocking another two over.
I tried to use my spells but the backlash almost sent me flying into the claws of a six armed creature, if it hadn't been hit by the fridge. Because my spells weren't the best solution for this situation, I had to grab anything that flew nearby and throw it. Or hit them if they got close enough, as I hit another one with a pan smashing its tooth out.
Cosmo did not have those troubles, as he simply punched anything that got close to him. I took a slight amount of pleasure as he hit his head on a cabinet.
It didn't last long as I flew out the window. gravity shifted the second I exited the house. I managed to grab onto the windowsill. Which wasn't a good idea as the building was rotating on itself fairly quickly, dragging me along. I Got a very dizzy look from the outside. I could see ourselves slowly moving towards the ground. Only possible because of the many fires which now littered the ground. I could also see two or three dozen creatures, mostly pony sized, crawling around using their claws to hold onto the building. Which had seen me and were rushing towards me. Well, at least my theory was correct.
I kicked one that got too close to me with my rear hoof. It was flung away as it let loose of the building because of its fast rotation. Not very far as it now awkwardly floated near the house, but not close enough to grab onto it. I tried slowly lifting myself back in.
Something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. One of the massive creatures in the horizon lifting its arm up. It then made what looked like a throwing motion. I then saw a tiny blot heading in this direction. Which then turned into a tiny creature as it got closer. A creature which was now flying towards here at a breakneck pace. Which shouldn't be possible because of the strange gravity which had stopped the house from crashing and held it in the air and should thus be stopping it mi...
The flying creature then slammed into me before I could give myself a headache thinking about the rules of this world. I was hit at such an angle that it threw me back into the kitchen. It was a wonder that I didn't fall unconscious after the change of gravity, the pain I now felt after being hit into the back and the fact that I hit that damn fridge snout first. Cosmo grabbed me before I could fly into a creature covered in spikes and then kicked it.
I tried not to puke.
Cosmo then spoke. "I'm feeling dizzy." Fan-freaking-tastic. I managed to glare at him without puking. His eyes were cross eyed. "I thought this would be fun." "You're stupid for thinking that." I slurred back angrily. He uppercutted another spiky creature in the jaw, which I will now call hedgehogs from now on, causing it to impale a winged creature behind it.
"I blame the fridge." Said fridge then slammed into Cosmo. I fortunately avoided it and was sent flying. Which made me feel sicker. The fresh fruit that flew past my face made it worse. My stomach felt upside down. I wasn't the only one to feel like that. As the hedgehog and the other creatures all looked sickly. Some tried hanging onto walls, while others had seemingly turned a sickly green.
I froze as I felt something press against my back. I fearfully turned my head around. I saw a tiny creature with slitted eyes whose body ended into a legless tail hugging my back. From the look on its face it was clearly too sick and confused to bother attacking me. It actually looked cute. But its weight on my back made me feel even sicker, so I kicked it off my back.
The kitchen rotated again. The fridge was thrown into the doorway sending half a dozen creatures that were trying to cross it back into the hallway. Another three then slammed into the fridge. Cosmo slammed snout first into the ceiling. And I slammed into a shelf. I suddenly felt a horrible pain in my right ear.
As I was thrown away, again, I felt an atrocious tug at my ear before feeling an even worse pain. I was thrown through the room and slammed into the opposite wall. I regained some of my bearings and looked back to the shelf I had slammed into it. It was filled to the brim with knives. I stared into disbelief at my ear.
Four knives were stuck through it, still on the shelf. It had been ripped off. Blood gushed through my wound.
A hedgehog leaped at me. I didn't notice it as a chair knocked into it. I slammed into a wall, but didn't even flinch. My amulet shined brightly, but as far as I was bothered it didn't even exist. I put a hoof on my severed ear. Pain coursed through my head. My eyes welled up with tears. Everything slowly turned black. All noise fading out. The amulet growing brighter and brighter.
I was woken up as a pan hit me in the gut. I puked.
Everything was fuzzy. I tried to cast a healing spell, but all the slamming and flying around made that impossible. Cosmo was busy throwing a bunch of rodent looking creatures off his back. I grabbed onto the doorframe and held on. I blinked multiple times and noticed the bright red glow on my neck. I also noticed a bigger creature, the size of Cosmo, climbing in through the window. A smoking blue goo dripping of his mouth
It suddenly screeched in pain as it was thrown into the room with his lower body gone. The sound of wood scraping against stone could then be heard. It seemed that we had landed.
Violently.
As the house we were all in hit the ground gravity shifted again, pulling us all down. I held onto the doorframe and Cosmo had his claws dug into a wall, both holding for dear life. Another dozen or two creatures also hung on. One of the walls, the one to be in contact with the ground, disintegrated turning anything unlucky enough to be on it into a bloody pulp. Same for anything that was in the air, as they were dragged back down to be shredded into pieces.
Unfortunately, the fact that we had landed didn't mean that we had stopped. The force with which we had landed was so powerful that the building kept going, grinding against the ground and smashing anything in its path.
The ground got closer and closer to me as all the walls keeping us up where being torn apart by the solid stone ground. The creatures closest to the ground were turned into paste as the piece of wall they held on broke. I tried to lift myself up, but failed because of all the pain I felt. My rear hooves were dangling dangerously close to the ground.
And then we fell again. The entire building tilted suddenly. As everyone and everything was thrown into the water. The building slowly sunk with me still inside. I tried to swim out, but was too weak as the currents dragged me down. I tried to scream, but only succeeded in swallowing water. A clawed hand then grabbed me and dragged me along.
It pulled me out of the sinking building, smashing through a wall. I coughed as we surfaced. Once my coughing fit had ended i looked at the claw that was holding. It's ethereal glow instantly told me who it belonged to. I turned my head around and saw Cosmo with a wide smile showing all of his teeth. The second he saw my face his expression shifted. He now looked a little bit worried, but his smile never went away.
We were in a river being dragged by its current alongside a dozen other creatures. A whole bunch jumped into the river and started swimming after us. Cosmo twisted around and in one smooth motion I lay on his back. He started swimming, humming to himself and wagging his tail at our pursuers. He acted like nothing could hurt him as he swam alongside the current. The river was going underground and so were we.
Crying is quite soothing. It's calming and clears the mind. It allowed me to come to the conclusion that Cosmo is enjoying my suffering. I had been sobbing on his back, which is still wet from my tears, yet he kept humming to himself and flicking his tail at our pursuers. Most of which looked like they were about to drown, others seemed to be floating and a few could clearly breathe underwater. We were all in an underground river.
But all could barely reach us. They were a meter or even less behind us. Sometimes they tried to bite at Cosmo's tail as he taunted them with it, sometimes poking them on the snout with it. I don't even know if he was doing it on purpose or if his tail acted on its own, as he was busy humming some very familiar sounding song.
At least he swam with such grace' I'll admit that, that I could easily stay on his back without falling off. Which allowed me to nurse my wounds. I tried to cast as many painkilling and anesthetic spells as I knew, but the throbbing pain coming from my ear was still there. I couldn't see it, having no mirror on me and it being too dark for me to see my reflection on the water, but from what I could feel it was a horrible tear with exposed flesh and nerves everywhere.
My ear was the most obvious, painful and likely to get infected wound but it wasn't the only one. I was covered in bruises and cuts, my snout was still bleeding, there were splinters everywhere ,my horn ached as I used a light spell to see and said light was starting to hurt my eyes. I also found Cosmo's back to be very uncomfortable and cold. Makes sense as part of it is covered in steel.
"Oh, almost forgot." Cosmo suddenly said. He then lifted one of his arms up holding something shiny in it. "I did not have enough time to finish all of it but..." He didn't even finish his sentence before starting to hum another tune again. He held his arm out at an awkward angle so that I could grab it. It was armor. A helmet, hoof guards and what seemed to be a chestpiece. I put them on without hesitating, they felt surprisingly warm. As much as I may dislike him, if this armor allowed me not to lose any other body parts, then I would not refuse it.
All pieces of armor had a light blue ethereal glow to it, which was quite nice to look at. There were three leg pieces, meaning that he probably did not have time to make the fourth one. The two for my rear legs were shorter and only covered the lower part of my leg while the one for my front leg was made out of two separate armor pieces attached to each other by chainmail and covered most of my leg. It also had a star inscripted into it, which glowed slightly brighter. The rear ones had no inscription and looked a lot more utilitarian.
The helmet looked like a bowl with a very big brim. There were two holes in for the ears with chainmail attached to them to protect the ears and one hole for my horn. This would have been very useful less than half an hour ago. There was also more chainmail attached to the back to protect the neck. There was also another star inscripted into the front of it. This one had a dark purple glow. There also was a small pike on top of it.
I put it on as to avoid any other future unfortunate events that may result in lost appendages. I flinched in pain as the lukewarm chainmail pressed against my open wound. I tried to move it around, but it just caused me more pain.
The chestpiece covered my whole chest alongside the upper part of my stomach. It was made out of multiple intertwined metal plates. It had a tiny neck guard and a loose hanging metal plate protecting the stomach. It had what looked like a unicorn skull with wings behind it inscripted on it instead of a star. I found that to be slightly morbid. It was also the heaviest and hardest to put on.
I noticed that all the armor pieces were padded, making it more comfortable. It also wasn't that heavy. A few kilos at least, but less than any other armor that I had ever used (when you work with fireworks or gunpowder you sometimes need to take precautions). The leg pieces were surprisingly flexible.
"Like it?" Cosmo asked. I answered in the most neutral tone that I could manage. "Trixie appreciates it." He then went back to humming, flicking his tail. I had no idea what went on his head, probably never will and don't want to. It would just give me a headache. He probably knew that I was thinking about him, but clearly seemed content ignoring it.
Which was infuriating as he obviously knew how I felt and purposefully kept acting nonchalantly.
I was distracted by some creature flailing around in the water. It looked like it was trying to spit at me. One of it's three heads at the very least. Those things were trying to kill me, which I did not appreciate. And having some target practice would be a good idea and prepare me for the future. And help me vent a bit. I stood up on Cosmo's back, putting one of my rear hooves on his neck and one front hoof on his spine not caring if he felt uncomfortable.
I thought about which spell to use. I then fired a simple fire spell. I physically facehooved as the spell fizzled as it hit the water. I also groaned from exhaustion. My aim had been atrocious and the spell weak, proving that I desperately needed to practice. Also using fire on something that's half submerged underwater probably wasn't the best idea. So I used an electricity spell instead. I fired it in the center of a group of swimming creatures. They flinched a bit but kept on swimming unbothered. Well, I could...
I felt a heavy rumble which almost made me fall off Cosmo's back. I managed to keep my footing, which did involve stepping on his head. Some pieces of stone fell from above hitting some creatures and taking them out. Some fell very close to me splashing me with water. Fortunately none fell on me.
The tiny earthquake stopped as quickly as it had started. I could guess what had caused it. I took a better position and went back to casting spells.
I had managed to cast a dozen spells, before being too exhausted to even stand up. I might also have sweared loudly a few times. Most aimed at a mare of purple coloration, but a few were meant for the nondescript creatures following me. So I now lay on Cosmo's back thinking. Mostly angry hateful thoughts. A few did make me laugh as they involved humiliating said mare of purple coloration that I had mentioned. None lasted long however as the pain of my lost ear and the sound of the creatures behind me always reminded me of the dire situation that I was in.
I had almost started crying again multiple times, either out of pain or fear, but managed to keep it in.
So I was now observing my surroundings with a weak light spell. It hurt, but it was bearable. what I managed to see reminded me of some old catacombs. I saw some tiny dilapidated wooden docks and canoes from time to time. It made me wonder who or what had made them. And where they might now be. Such thoughts made me worry even more, but it did not stop me from thinking about them.
I could ask Cosmo but I didn't really trust what he would say and he would probably make my headache worse with vague answers. Ancient beings are always vague, that's an universal rule. Or multiversal in this case. Wait, was this proof that the multiverse was real? I groaned as thinking about it made my headache worse.
Not that it mattered. The only thing that matters is to get home and get my revenge. A very well deserved revenge I might have. The amulet glowed slightly brighter at those thoughts. I had no idea how it worked. Was it confidence? Violence? Me being hurt and in pain? Or maybe it was me bleeding that was causing it to glow? A very grim possibility, but even if that was the case what was it doing? The amulet glowed brighter but I did feel any powerfuller.
it was but another question amongst many. I'll probably never find an answer for that. And most likely throw the amulet away, because with my luck I would never be able to sell it.
I spotted what looked like an old stone bridge in front of me. It was hard to see, but became clearer as we got closer. On top of it were two gleaming eyes. Whatever they belonged to was basically invisible in the dark. The eyes were red and had black pupils. It quickly ran away as we got closer so I had no idea what it was.
I felt Cosmo grab me with his ever changing amount of limbs before leaping onto the bridge. He then unceremoniously dropped me onto the bridge. The creatures tried leaping after us, but to my relief none managed to jump high enough to grab on. There were hallways on both sides of the bridge. The left side had caved in so we could only go through the right side. Or jump back into the water.
"Trixie assumes that we are going towards what you call the rift?" I asked. "Trixie assumed correctly." He had a horribly confident smile on. Also travelling underground felt very familiar. "Trixie also assumes that we're going to move underground and peek out manholes until the light becomes blinding?" "yup." The fact that I knew what he had planned and that it wasn't the first time that I had done it said a lot about my life. I also hated that fact.
if I had a bit for every time I did that I would have nine bits by now. Which was enough to buy a decent meal and an abnormally high amount of times to have done that.
So I followed Cosmo Into the dark tunnels. At least I had experience doing this.
"Take your problems and move them somewhere else." A savant.
I wanted to sneeze. It was but one amongst many ailments that I currently felt. The tunnels were very dusty. So were the strange skeletons littering the floor. I had to be careful not to step on them. Something which Cosmo, to no one's surprise, did not bother to do.
The sound it made each time he crushed a bone by stepping on them was utterly atrocious. Especially the skulls.
Looking at the strange skeletons one of the first things I noticed was that quite a few of them had hind legs longer than their front legs. I had never seen any creature with proportions like that, except for Cosmo. Quadrupeds had front and hind legs of the same size while bipeds, like minotaurs and diamond dogs, had front legs or arms as they called them longer than their hind legs. And none of the creatures that were currently trying to kill me had such proportions.
Those however were far from the strangest lying around. Some of the old skeletons looked as if someone had taken multiple bodies and then glued them together. One even had two heads.
I hadn't seen any native creatures from this realm and those were the first remains that I saw. So did they belong to other beings which had the misfortune of getting stuck here just like me. I just had to hope I did not end up like them.
Cosmo then punched an old door out of it's socket. Yeah, my odds of survival were probably worse than theirs. "You first." He said with a very exaggerated wave. Yeah, I was doomed. But I already had an existential crisis in the last 24 hours. Fortunately my missing ear kept me from having a second crisis. The pain more exactly.
I entered the room. It looked like an old maintenance room, with all of it's rusty valves and pipes inside. The first thing Cosmo did was to twist the valves around, ripping multiple of them out of their sockets. The pipes rumbled as water and what sounded like stone flowed through them. Felt like they would burst at any moment. I quickly moved out of the room though another door and he quickly followed once there were no more valves to turn.
The next hallway was cleaner and with less skeletons around. Cosmo created a light into the palm of one of his hands. I had to squint a bit because of how bright it was. Once I got used to it I could see some drawings and patterns engraved into the stone walls. They were unreadable to me. They did look interesting. Like if they were telling a story with missing pages.
I quickly continued moving through the hallway. I kept looking at all of the inscriptions with the hopes that one would give me useful information. Like a map. And in the one and only bout of good luck that I had in the one or four last months I actually found a map. A very big detailed map engraved into the stone. It was half broken, but one of the not broken pieces was colored in red with multiple arrows on it. It felt like one of those "you are here" signs that were on maps in malls.
The area around the red arrows was relatively intact. I tried to see if there was a way out shown on the map. Cosmo also saw the map, but he simply put one of his clawed fingers on top of the map. I stared at where he was pointing. It showed like it was an exit. I stared at him, but he was grinning mouthlessly. It was already strange that he could make his mouth appear and disappear at will, but the way he expressed himself without a mouth.
The way his jaw and cheeks moved around was unsettling, so I looked back at the map. From my surprisingly extensive knowledge of maps, which I got from getting lost so many times, I deduced that there was an exit not too far away. Around an hour when looking at the scale of the map. I took a mental picture of it and then continued on. Cosmo started humming again.
Which made me wish that I had lost both ears.
After around forty-five minutes, as there was no way for me to verify, we reached a big wooden door. It was slightly rotten and looked like it had been reinforced with some kind of metal. For once Cosmo actually stopped in front of the door instead of walking or punching through it. Like he had done with every other door. "What are you waiting for?" I asked with a mild amount of both irritation and fear. "I'm waiting for you." He nodded towards the door. "It should be no trouble for someone as great as you to open it." He had a mouthless, three eyed smile as he said that. Which was very creepy.
A calm and responsible mare would have ignored his provocation. I was neither of those. "Easy, Trixie has turned bigger and better doors into fine dust with ease!" I shouted and glared at him. I then proceeded to shoot at the door with a blast of powerful raw magic. Instead of turning into dust like I had wanted it bounced back and hit me in the chest. I was thrown on my back on the floor.
He laughed loudly. I simply stood there fuming and boiling with hatred. The realisation that that blast should have killed me and the only reason I had survived was because of the chestplate that he had made, made me feel even worse. He simply kept on laughing. I silently hoped that he would choke. He then started coughing and wheezing. His laughter stopped, which made me slightly less unhappy.
As I stood up I heard a loud clang. I saw a mace lying in front of me. Cosmo had thrown it in front of me. It was clearly the same one I had used earlier. He did not need to say anything for me to know what he wanted me to do. I grabbed it.
And I very violently and brutally smashed it into the door. Repeatedly. Slowly twisting and tearing the door apart. Cosmo was chuckling, but I couldn't hear him because of the loud sounds of me smashing the door apart.
As the door came apart I could see that there were lights on the other side. Once the door fell of it's hinges I simply entered the room, mace raised ready to use. It was a wide big room, with massive pipes multiple times my size, filled with all kinds of platforms. There were multiple working lamps, meaning that the room was fairly well lit.
I took every detail in. From loose wires to empty barrels, the room felt... modern. The way everything was laid about reminded me of the extensive sewers of manehattan, which I had to hide in after a failed show. Multiple times.
As I looked around I saw it. Those same gleaming eyes with black pupils that I had seen back onto the bridge, they actually looked like they were glowing. It was also no wonder I couldn't see it in the dark as it was... dark. It looked like a three dimensional shadow, literally. Its whole body was pitch black, except for it's eye and their strange glow. It also didn't look very solid, as its body kept slightly shifting around.
Its appearance was also strange. Its upper body and head looked like it belonged to a tall and slender pony. But its legs instead of ending with hooves like mine, had clawed hands. Its lower body also did not belong to a pony. It had six legs and reminded me of a crab. But not as wide as a crab. It reminded me of those silly centaur stories, except someone had glued a pony on top of a crab.
I would find that funny if it weren't staring at me so intensely. Cosmo simply jumped down onto a large drain pipe, ignoring the shadowy creature. Said creature tilted his head slightly. It looked curious, its attention also seemed to be focused on Cosmo's instead of on me.
Against my better judgement I waved at it. It noticed and waved back. It moved slightly closer, crawling over a safety rail with six of its eight legs. Well, technically its two front legs would be arms since they had hands onto them instead of hooves or paws. But that wasn't important.
It stopped getting closer around a dozen meters away from me. It then showed four of its fingers in what I assumed was its mouth. I couldn't actually see it, he might not even have one for all I knew. It then whistled before I could think about anything else.
A whole bunch of shadowy creatures then started popping out of every nook and cranny. Some crawled out of pipes and holes in the walls. Others came out of the many doors in the room. Some slithered and crawled over the staircases. Some had pony features, but most did not. Also a sizable amount of them were wearing ragged clothes, had hats or helmets on or were even carrying tools around. All looked like pitch black shadows. And all looked around with their glowing eyes and black pupils.
They did not look hostile. They all looked curious, some actually looked scared. They weren't just staring, some cowered behind barrels and boxes and others looked like they were whispering though I couldn't hear anything. Both me and Cosmo stared back. I with fearful curiosity and he with a mischievous smile.
I jumped down onto the same pipe that Cosmo had jumped on and huddled closer to him. The... Shadows just kept staring. They all looked different. They were similarities, as they all had a pair of hands and all fairly thin and slender upper bodies. All had a tail, though the size and lenght varied. They also all had a similar size. However some had very long necks, four or even five eyes, multiple heads, horns, all kinds of different animal-like heads and more.
The bigger and more obvious differences all were on their lower body. Some walked on two legs while others crawled on all fours. Some didn't even have legs and instead their entire lower body was a long tail, like the body of a snake. Some had four, six or even eight long spindly legs similar to those of crabs and spiders. It was a strange sight.
I noticed a bipedal one whose legs looked like they were longer than his arms. Just like the skeletons I had seen earlier. Actually, a lot of them looked just like the strange array of bones and limbs I had seen earlier. Like the two headed one.
The silent starring match was interrupted as screeching could be heard from the door from which we had come. After a few seconds a whole bunch of them bursted through the busted door. They then stopped and stared at the shadowy creatures. I sweared internally at their sudden appearance.
Their silence didn't last long as they screeshed and slashed their claws in the air. They did not attack though. The shadowy creatures answered, not by screaming, but by pulling knives, bows and all other kinds of weapons out of their pockets and bags. One even had a long wooden stick that looked like a blunderbuss. They were brand new and very rare in equestria, more common in griffonia. And I definitely had a bad experience with them (they hurt like tartarus).
A lumbering muscle, bound creature walked through the broken door. It was covered in dark green fur except for its front legs which had grey fur. It had a pair of long sharp horns on the back of its head. Said head was long and lizard-like, very similar to a dragon's head, but with fur instead of scales. It had two very big exposed snake-like fangs on the upper part of its jaw. Its tail was long and thick, almost as long as himself which ended in a very sharp and hooked blade. All of its legs ended with big four fingered paws with very sharp claws. Its front legs looked like they were bigger than me. Its neck was oddly long and slender when compared to the rest of me.
It then spitted a large reddish blob, which fizzled. It hit a spider-like creature which was hanging precariously off a pipe straight in the face. It fell hitting multiple pipes and railways on the way down. It landed on a metal platform head first. Its body twisted in a very wrong way, spine definitely broken. The rest of the shadowy creatures stared in disbelief at the broken and twitching body.
A brick was thrown into the face of the lumbering creature.
And then all the tartarus broke loose.
Both sides leaped at each other. I could hear more whistling and more shadowy creatures appeared through all the holes and pipes to join the fray. A wave of non shadowy creatures were pouring through the door, crawling all over each other.
One jumped at me. I hit it with my mace, which I was holding with my hooves instead of with magic for some reason. Three more leapt at me and met with the same fate. However as a fifth one leapt at me, my muscles strained and I dropped my mace. The creature was then crushed with a barrel before it would impale me with its sharp claws.
A sixth creature ended with an arrow into its knee before it could reach me. Those shadowy creatures weren't attacking me., they were actually on my side.
Which was very reassuring as Cosmo simply stood there staring around. I grabbed the mace with my magic and tried to move. My left leg hurt terribly, so I would walk with a limp. I would worry about that later. First focus on all the fighting around. It looked pretty evenly matched. Except for where the burly and lumbering creature was.
I could see multiple pitch dark bodies laying limply around. The lumbering creature was busy fighting a shadowy creature with the lower body of a spider. It was actually taller and used its long arms to stab the bulky beast with its very sharp claws on its hands. Unfortunately for it, the lumbering beast grabbed one of its legs and pulled on it. Not only was that leg ripped cleanly off, but the spider fell on the ground. Its head was then pulverid in one swipe by the beast.
I also saw that the shadowy being, who were clearly sentient, could bleed. Their blood was red, but much, much darker than normal pony blood.
Another being which was bipedal and looked like it had feathers, was throwing daggers, wrenchers bricks at the beast tried to run away once its companion had been slain. Unfortunately for it, the beast leapt after it. The beast slammed the feathery being on the ground. The being tried desperately to crawl away, but its legs did just there limply and the beast kept one of its massive paws on top of the beings back. It then lifted its other paw ready to crush another head.
Before it could strike it was hit by a big blue bolt, pushing it back. This allowed the being to crawl away. The lumbering brute turned towards where the bolt had come from, staring directly at me. That spell had been taxing on me, as exhausted and I already was. As it stared at me with hate filled eyes, I took all the courage I had left and put on a bravado. And I shouted out the top of my lungs.
The beast turned towards me with a hateful glare. Its two empty white eyes. I gulped. Its attention now fully focused on me. The shadowy beings used this opportunity to get away from it and keep fighting against all of the tinier creatures.
A few of the tinier creatures were about to leap on me, but one growl from the hulking beast made them cower and turn around. It had a big snarl onto its face, which kinda looked like a half-smile. There was a very clear glint of cruel intelligence in its eyes. Cosmo had told me that they weren't animals.
But if it's intelligent then it can be fooled and manipulated. I might not be a "professional spell caster" but I knew my way around illusionary magic. My horn felt sore, so I would not be able to cast many spells. I would have to use my mace to defeat it. Which did not bode well because of the massive difference in size and mass.
However we were not on a solid floor. The room was made out of many elevated platforms and stairs, I could also hear the sound of rushing water down beneath. While the room was fairly well lit, I still could not see the bottom. With any luck I could make it fall into the water beneath.
Also I was using a weapon and wearing armor made by an ancient and supposedly very powerful being.
Allegedly.
It slowly moved towards me. Each and single step makes the floor grating shake. It had the stance of a predator about to jump on its unsuspecting prey. I took a more defensive stance holding my mace up in my unarmored right hoof. I could use my left hoof (which was covered in armor) as a shield. I tried no to shake, but failed miserably. It then leapt.
I dodged to the left haphazardly to the left. Scraping my knees against the floor, they would be bleeding were it for the armor covering them. I heard a clunk sound and turned around. The bulky creature had smashed into a big pipe, as I had barely dodged it, head first. It was shaking its head, slightly dazed. I took that opportunity to hit it.
It swiftly dodged my clumsy attack. My mace left a dent in the floor. The beast looked down at the dent and then back at me. It somehow looked angrier than before. It swiped at me with its claws. It missed me, but managed to rip some of mine out.
I jumped down onto a big pipe before it could swipe again. I fell on top of a shadowy being with a beak and glass vials into its hand. The being threw me, quite gracefully, off its back and continued throwing vials at the creatures. The bulky beast followed after me. I hurriedly scrambled out of the way as it jumped onto the pipe. Its weight caused the big pipe, which was twice my size and made out of metal, to twist and bend violently. It caused me and the being with vials to lose its footing and both fall off.
We fell down for some two or three meters before falling on top of some stairs. We both tried to stand up as quickly as possible. The lumbering beast carefully jumped down from platform to platform before reaching us, throwing anything on them off.
The shadowy being ran away leaving me alone against the beast as it stepped onto the stairs. I swung my mace, but it reached short. It did cause the being to flich and bought me a few seconds. I shot a weak magic blast into its face, which made it flinch even more. But did not hurt it, only making it angrier.
It smashed both of its front legs into the stairs. The shock caused me to fall on my back. As I lay there defenseless, It flung its tail around, hitting me straight in the chests with its sharp, hooked blade.
It simply bounced off with an ugly crack.
All the air escaped from my lungs and I felt horrible pain coming from my chest. I gasped for air and to both my and the beast's surprise I succeeded. We both stared at my chest, the chestpiece and a piece of broken blade laying beside it. We then both stared at the beast tail. The hooked blade on top was now broken.
While the beast was busy staring at its tail in disbelief, I stood up and walked away wheezing painfully. I put a hoof on my chest and felt that it had only left a tiny scratch on my armor. Happy that I was alive, I jumped off the stairs onto one of the many platforms around. I landed on the tail of a three headed creature. It quickly turned its upper body and its three heads spat at me. I reflexively grabbed the three blobs with my magic and threw them back into its faces which caused it to screech in pain and fall on its back.
I moved away, wheezing with every step. The entire platform then lurched as the beast leapt onto it, crushing the screeching creature under its paws. It then lunged forward, its head sideways and maw wide open, trying to bite my head off. I failed to dodge it, but my helmet stopped it from biting. We stood there awkwardly, my head stuck into its wide open mouth and it was unable to close it. One of its two long fangs was uncomfortably close to my face.
As it tried to crush my head I simply fired an electricity spell down its throat. And while it was a very weak spell, it did cause the beast to screech in pain. This allowed me to get out of its grip. Or rather I was thrown back as the beast thrashed around. One of its fangs tore a big ugly gash through my left cheek. I quickly stood up, powered by an unnatural amount of adrenaline and ,while it was still thrashing in pain, slammed my mace in to the back of one of its knee.
It buckled and caused the beast to lose its balance and fall on its side. Before I could do anything, it started swiping one of its clawed paws around in wide arcs. I was forced to back away, if I did not want to be torn to shreds. It then stood back up wincing, as it moved the leg I had hit. Instead of leaping at me as it had been doing, it spitted a big mass of a red fuming and fizzing liquid the size of my head at me.
I dodged it and it hit a pipe. A few drops landed on me, instantly burning through my furn and skin cauterizing the wounds instantly. I screamed in pain and tears streamed down my face. While I was squirming from pain, the beast got closer and prepared to cave my skull in.
A barrel then hit it in the face before it could reach me. This gave me enough time to regain my bearings and jumped off the platform. As I jumped down I saw Cosmo waving at me, sitting on a pipe , holding a barrel in one of its hands. He then threw it into a group of creatures. At least he was helping.
I tried to climb up to him, jumping from platform to platform, going up broken stairs and crawling over all kinds of pipes. The beast was following behind me, fortunately it had some trouble climbing up as everything crumbled under its weight. A barrel wasn't going to keep it down for long. I reached Cosmo after a minute or two of climbing and almost falling off.
"Do something!" I shouted at him as he was busy throwing any kind of miscellaneous objects around. Including any kind of creature that came into reach. "But I'm doing something!" He answered with an exaggerated shrug. "Against THAT!" I shouted back, pointing a hoof at the beast, which was currently climbing up.
He just shrugged again and said. "But you're already handling that. Also from a 0 to 13,4 how useful do you find the armor to be?" "11 and Trixie is ...uhh ... too tired to handle it alone." I answered. He raised one of his nonexistent eyebrows, shifting his face in a strange way. "Well I'm already helping,..." He punched some creature in the face as he said that. "what else do you want me to do?"
"But you could help more, you aren't wounded or exhausted like Trixie." He just shrugged. I then heard a loud sound of metal breaking, we both looked down and saw that the beast had fallen down by a few meters as a pipe it had jumped on broke. That would give me some more time to talk. "It can't even move around properly." Cosmo then said with an indignant tone.
I started getting red with anger. I shouted angrily at him. "Trixie wants you to do something useful and not stand there smiling like if this were a game." His smile disappeared instantly.
He now looked irritated. Almost angry. It was disconcerting, scary even. For the short while I had known him he had always looked happy or maybe concerned, but never like... this. When I first saw him, well his eyes more exactly, they looked angry but not this threatening. He was still speaking with the same charming, androgynous sounding voice that he had, but now he spoke slower and with a threatening undertone.
"Maybe I should make this clear, you could order me to stop or even kill it and I would have to obey. But it would be against my will." He showed his tooth off. "I'm trying to make this fun and help you. But remember that I never wanted to come here and that I'm only here because of you." He jabbed me in the chest with one of his clawed fingers. "And you should not forget that."
I nodded weakly. His demeanor changed instantly.He took a nearby wrench and threw it at the nearest creature. I thought the way he behaved was annoying, but maybe I should have been scared of him. I knew so little about him, yet I hadn't thought about where he came from or what powers he might have.. And I had almost forgotten that it was my fault that we were here. He owed me nothing, yet he had helped so much. The armor I was currently wearing had been made by him. I had been really...
The beast then slammed into me throwing me off the pipe onto another platform, this one bigger and sturdier looking than all the other platforms. I landed on it with a loud thud. And then stood up, groaning in pain and wheezing from the hit it had previously landed on my chest.
I saw the beast Jumping towards me. I quickly jumped to the side before he could land on me. The platform creaked, but it held fast unlike all the others. While it regained its bearings I tried to jump or climb on another platform or pipe.
This became impossible as we were on the lowest platform. There was nothing beneath it to jump on, I couldn't even see the bottom. I could hear the sound of rushing water. I tried to leap towards a pipe, but none were close enough for me to grab on. I was stuck here. And I wasn't the only one to notice that. As I turned back towards the beast, I saw him smiling. A big cruel smile, there was no mistake. It even sounded like it was laughing.
It even stood up on its two rear legs and started cracking the clawed fingers of its front paws. I had seen a diamond dog do it once and I had found it to be an unhealthy habit. This hadn't changed and was definitely meant as a threat coming from that beast standing in front of me. It then opened its mouth, likely the screech at me.
It talked. That brutish thing talked. It had a very rough and deep voice, but still it talked.
I then remembered that Cosmo had told me that those creatures were not animals. Which served as a reminder that I knew basically nothing about anything that was going around.
The beast in front of me then started chuckling. Looking back at it, it had a big smile on its face. It wasn't as cruel as its previous smiles. It looked like if it were genuinely amused. Then it spoke again. "Allways funy wen tey hear me speeak. Tey allways tink tat I kan't speeak. But I kan, language barrier ish chalenge thoug. also.." It pointed at its jaw. "...my mout ish not made for speakin yor language."
Before I could say anything, it continued speaking. "But, tats not importnt, wats importnt ish tat you should b honord tat I m speakin to you." that got my attention. ”What do you mean with honored? W-why would I I I ever be honored that you're speaking to me?" It simply chuckled some, slightly louder this time.
"Becaus Usualy I just, to putt it mildli, smash my, uh, my..." It snapped its claws, in the same way that griffons sometime did, multiple times. "...enemish. I'm alway angri, anger issuu you see, but wen tey survive and put up a figt, ten it gets fun." It then pointed at its smiling face. "And ten Im not angri anymor. So I speak wit tem to knnow wo Im fightig. Espechialy, wen tey challeng me to a one on one dueel."
"O-okay." I answered hesitantly. "D-doesn't answer why I should be honored." It chuckled some more, before awkwardly standing up on its two hind leg. "I am, rougly transslatd and shortend, Jossefina Lopez, third of the name, undefeated in a total of onehunderdand thirtyfive duels, daughter of our highest priestess, bringer of doom, destroyer of barriers and servant of the immortal mother."
It said all of that with its deep but surprisingly joyfull, which sounded oddly familiar. Also it spoke in perfect Equestrian as it spoke those specific words.
A pink pony, covered in the remnants of a very big cake (which might have imploded) and desperately trying to put said cake back together, shouted. "WHHHHYYYYYYYYYYY..."
"So tats wy you should b Honord. And impressd. Now woul you giv me the honr of knowing yor nam? you are quite impressve seein as you survivd this long." I thought for a few seconds, which seemed to amuse it (her? it said it was the daughter of something?) even more. "The..." And I then shutted up. I was about to call myself by some silly title again. The creature in front of me (Jossefina? sounded like a spaneigh name) probably deserved all those titles. At least much more than I ever would. Even though the only thing she had done was attack me in a brutish manner, charging with no technique or grace.
"I'm trixie." She curiously cocked her head. "No famil nam?" She asked with a surprisingly innocent tone. "lulamoon" "Tat's a nice nam. Not as sily as mine, mine ish very llong and complcated. Yours soundd nice." She uncharacteristically complimented. uncharacteristically, as I met her only minutes ago and the only thing she had done was try to kill me, while growling. So to actually have a nice, nonviolent conversation felt strange. Especially since the rest of her kind, actually were all those tinier creature even of the same species as her? She was five times bigger compared to all the bigger creatures.
"Oky, now tat weve introdced ourselvs, kan we kontinue wit me turnin you into pulp?" Well, any niceties were bound to end suddenly.
She then leapt at me before I could do anything. I barely managed to dodge it, silently thanking all of the bulls, yaks and high velocity fireworks that I had to dodge (and painfully failed). She then swung her tail around, which I ducked. It failed to hit my head, but it glanced by the open wound where my ear used to be. It hurt as hell. I winced in pain and clasped my hoof on the wound or more precisely the area on my helmet where it's supposed to be.
She used this opportunity, to hit me in the chest. The hit threw me backwards, fortunately there was a safety railing behind me, which stopped me from falling off. Unfortunately my back hit it very fast and violently. Both my back and chest hurt horribly. She simply stood there shuckling softly, enjoying the fact that I was in pain.
I saw my mace lying on the ground near me. I hadn't even noticed that I had dropped it. I grabbed it with my magic and threw it so hard at her that I swung my entire around trying to give it as much momentum as possible. It flew at her so fast that she had no time to react before hitting her straight in the snout. Her snout then crumbled onto itself with an extremely loud crack.
Crimson liquid started pouring out of her nose and dozens of tears that had appeared on her face. SHe let out a very loud scream of pain. She grabbed her face trying to put her snout back into place.
"BITCH!"
She shouted at me, hatred being once again visible in her eyes. Her demeanor then changed back to her more friendly self. "I wil admt tat tat was a guud move. You were givn an opportunty and took it. Makes me respct tou mor. I would hav don te same if I was in your place." She then put all of her limbs back onto the floor and took the position of a bull ready to charge.
"But tat, as your language put it, FUCKING hurt!"
And then she charged at me. I started dodging, but she stopped midcharge and spat at me while I was in the air. I used my magic to throw myself onto the ground, avoiding her boiling spit. In my panic I threw myself on the ground very hard. Snout first.
I had no time to spit the blood building up in my mouth out as I stood up and started running. There wasn't anywhere for me to run. She simply leapt around swinging her claws at me and gracefully dodgin any of my clumsy attacks. She had completely changed her attack pattern. She was now feinting, attacking in quick succession and dodging. All of which was impressive considering her bulk.
The only reason I was alive was because of my armor and a few lucky dodges. She had first tried to claw me to death, but after breaking a few of her claws just like her tail she decided to simply punch me to death. And each of her hits felt like being hit by a brick wall. With lots of momentum. It was a miracle that I could still move around and even more that none of my bones felt broken.
I was definitely covered in bruises, but none of my bones had that very specific kind of pain that broken bones give you (I may be repeating myself but I have experience when its related to being hurt and in pain). She swung her tail around hitting me in the stomach. I managed to move slightly to the side avoiding the bulk of the attack but it still hit me.
It threw me backwards once again and caused an ugly tear on my stomach causing blood to pour out of the wound. I stared at my stomach. And saw that the amulet was glowing. She also saw that as she stopped, cocked her head and stared curiously at my amulet. I still didn't know why it glowed. As I tried to ignore its glow and put a hoof on the wound on my stomach to stymie the blood flow, I failed in the former.
I couldn't help but think about it. What caused it to glow? All of the stories I had heard said that the alicorn amulet would give its wearing unimaginable powers equal to those of an alicorn, hence the name. But what if it had to be activated? Which in hi...
Jossefina, as she had said the first part of her very long name was, was getting closer to me with a smile on her face. She looked both gleeful and hateful as she crawled towards me. I tried to move away, but it seems that that last attack was more than my body could handle. I could still feel my legs, in other words pain, but I couldn't move them. Hundreds of ideas popped up in my mind, all which would not work. Many required me to be able to walk.
In one last desperate gamble I asked her a question. "Why are you doing this?" She stopped, stared at me and smiled. "Gosh, youre te first one to ask me tis. In all my battles no one or thing ever askd me wy I did any of wat I did. My motivtions, my goals, my..." She kept rambling one while I tried to come up with any kind of idea to get out of this predicament. I was also slowly crawling further away from me.
She saw this and simply leapt towards me, landing just beside me with a very loud thump. She then put one of her paws on my chest pinning me on the ground. "You want to know wy I do things or do I smply smash tat head of yours?" "I want to hear, I'm very curious!" I reflexively shouted out loud. She smiled and started speaking.
"I do it for the immortal mother." She said that perfectly without any kind of lisp or stutter. Just like when she had told me her name. "She tells me to do it, sho I do it. For sshe will give us all for etrnity And all..." I was only partially listening to her as she spoke, too busy thinking about any way to get out of this predicament. And I had an odd and dreadful feeling that the amulet would be the solution to it.
I hadn't really put that much attention to it, so the only thing I could really say was the amulet started glowing when there was violence around. Or when I was bleeding? Had it been glowing before I started bleeding? Jossefina hadn't noticed that it was glowing until after hitting me with her tail, which had caused a tear on my stomach. I had no proof nor any real reason to think that that would be the reason my amulet glowed. But not only did I not have much time to think about anything really and it was the only thing I could do about.
I had nothing to lose.
I stared at the hoof that I had been using to try and stop my bleeding. It was covered in fresh blood, my blood. I gulped and put it closer to my neck.
I rubbed my bloody hoof on the amulet.
"...Wich ish wy I get so angry, you see. Well it whas surprisngly nice to speakk about me. But I dont reallI have much more time to talk. So I'll..." She was interrupted as the amulet glowed even brighter. It actually hurt to look at, so I closed my eyes. The blinding light quickly faded away to a more bearable glow.
While Jossefina was busy rubbing her eyes, I felt... reinvigorated. The amulet felt like it was getting tighter around my neck but it didn't hurt. All the pain I felt on my neck and throat after having been hit so much was disappearing. And then that pleasant feeling spread over my body quite quickly. Through my chest and towards my limbs, soothing the pain over every wound.
My missing ear and the open wound on my stomach, still hurt but less than before. I also felt, I don't know how to put it, stronger, much stronger. I felt a rush of magic flowing through my horn, my horn even sparkled a bit. Jossefina was still busy blinking repeatedly and rubbing her eyes instead of turning me into paste. So I rubbed some more blood onto the amulet.
It didn't glow as bright as it did before, but I felt even more power flowing through my body and the pain became even duller. As she endly regained her sight I blasted her in the face with a raw ball of magic. It threw her off me allowing me to stand up and trot away. Limped away actually, as my leg still hurt and was very bruised. I also had to move on three legs, as I kept one pressed on my open wound.
She quickly recovered from my attack and leapt at me. So I shot another spell at her. The now much powerfuller spel took her by surprise. Still it only pushed her back a little back. So I decided to use another more subtle spell. I conjured some smoke and created a light show with sparkles. She stared at the form that was slowly appearing in the smoke.
Suddenly a diminutif ursa minor appeared onto the platform, out of the smoke. It swung at Josefina and did not hit her on purpose. This clever and fairly realistic illusion would buy me some time. She spit at the ursa, with the spit simply going through the illusion and it faded away. However it had accomplished its goal.
As now five Trixie's stood there. The ursa might not have fooled her because of how over the top it was, but this should prove more effective. Which it did as she leapt onto one of the multiple Trixie's which instantly disappeared. She then swung her claws at all of the trixie's until she hit the right one. But none of the illusions, alongside the real Trixie, would make it easy for her as all of them ran around and did their best to dodge all of her attacks.
Still, it wasn't really that hard as josefina quickly took another two out. Before she could continue more smoke appeared. This time however instead of waiting until the smoke dissipated she started whispering, made a few quick gestures with one of her front paws which caused multiple runes to appear on her paw and glow. All of the smoke instantly disappeared. "I alsho hav a few triks of my own."
She wasn't really bothered by the eight Trixie's standing in front of her. She started whispering again which caused more runs to appear on her paws and legs. All of the illusions started running around to try and dodge whatever spell she would cast.
Running.
None of them were limping.
Actually none of them were making any kind of sound, which should have been impossible on the rickety platform they currently stood on. Unfortunately she noticed this too late. As the platform suddenly started tilting in an uneven slope. It also started groaning under her weight. All eight illusions disappeared leaving her alone.
Jossefina looked around trying to find me. She found me as I slowly floated back up, surrounded by the blue glow of my magic. Which, alongside the illusions, would have normally been impossible.I was also holding a bunch of screw and metal bars in my magic. She tried to do something, don't know what, but was stopped as the platform creaked loudly and tilted even more. She had to hold on if she didn't want to fall off.
She gave me what looked like a respectful nod before speaking. "yo..."
A tiny creature, one of those with bat-like heads, then fell from above hitting the platform with a loud smack.
It then creaked even more, all of its remaining supports loudly snapping into pieces. The safety railings simply dissingrated, bolts and screws were sent flying in every direction as the platform fell. Taking Josefina and the other creature, unable to fly, with it. I saw them fall into the darkness beneath both screeching in what sounded like fear as they disappeared into the darkness below.
I couldn't even hear them hit the bottom, though I could still hear the sound of rushing water. I slowly floated towards The nearest pipes and climbed on it.
I noticed that everyone, both the shadowy beings and creatures, were staring at me. After a few seconds of awkward silence the creatures all ran away, while some of the beings started clapping and even whistling. to celebrate their victory. I could also see Cosmo clapping.
The whispering was soft and indecipherable. It was just there both loud enough for me to hear and soft enough that I could still hear everything around me. My body also felt very numb, I could still feel what I touched. It just felt strange and hard to describe.
The glow on my amulet had fully disappeared and along with that the feeling of power that it had given me. It had now been remplaced with a feeling of dread. My blood on it was gone, absorbed by the amulet. And now it was pouring through its eye. A tiny trickle of the crimson liquid coming out of it, running down on my hoof that was currently holding the amulet.
The tiny trickle of blood soon also stopped. And the whispering along with it. I became aware of my surroundings once again. There was some whistling and the sound skittering. I took the amulet off and held it in my hoof. And then the thump of something landing beside me. I looked to my left. Cosmo had jumped down and now sat beside me. He looked tinier than before and now had five eyes instead of three.
"I'm scared." He tilted his head and stared curiously at me, but did not seem fazed. Tears were now pouring out of my eyes. Cosmo though did not seem bothered by it. But he was listening to me.
I then started crying. Cosmo pulled me against his chest, allowing me to cry on it. "I can see why you're scared, but why are you sorry?" I sobbed for a few seconds before answering.
"I-It's my fault tha-at you're here or that I'm here. I thought I was great I was great and that nothing could touch me." I sobbed some more. "But no I was not c-careful and not only was I pulled here, but almost died multiple times. The o-only reason I'm still alive is because of this" I pointed at my armor. "and this." I then pointed at the amulet.
"I thought you were annoying be-because you didn't seem to care, but it was I that didn't care. I kept talking in the third person." Cosmo put a hand on the back of my head and started caressing it. It was awkward because of the helmet, but I didn't care. "And all because of some delusions of grandeur that I've had. Tw... Someone else taught me a lesson and instead of learning anything or changing my way, I tried to get my vengeance."
I then pointed at my missing ear. "You can see where that got me." Cosmo said nothing, he still smiled but it was softer. His eyes showed a bit more compassion. "I thought you were annoying because you didn't seem to care about anything happening around us. But I was the annoying one."
He then lifted me up and put me on his back. Then he started moving up, jumping gracefully from platform to platform. "True." He simply said before he started humming. "But I may have been a bit harsh." The shadowy beings got out of our way and started leaving the room. Some started waving at us and then pointed at a hole on a wall. They then went through it.
"Want to follow them?" Cosmo asked. I simply nodded. He then kept on talking. "I told you I was very old, ancient would be more accurate. I'm used to being blunt and only find the most extreme of situations humorous." We reached the hole into the wall and he took a look inside. He then carefully dropped me on the ground. One of the shadowy beings stood there, I think the first one that I saw, motioning for us to follow. "I'm also used to being summoned by, well, proficient and experienced. The last time I was summoned by accident was very long ago." He hummed a bit more.
"Actually, I haven't been summoned in a long time, period. I've never been good at interacting with anything with a shorter lifespan than me. Not the first time that I've been told that I seemed uncaring or rude or whatever." He then sighed. "It's the way I was brought up."
"I think I understand. Ponies get taught to be ponies, griffons are brought up to be griffons, yaks learn to yaks..." We walked through a tunnel for a short while. When we reached a hole in the ceiling, with makeshift stairs built there ,we went up. "My parents taught me magic tricks. And after watching a few magic shows I knew what I wanted to become." The stairs led to an old basement. We exited the basement and entered a fairly clean staircase. "I let it get up to my head." We followed the shadowy being up the stairs, before it went into the second floor. We followed suit.
"We are molded by our experiences and surroundings. We both had a different upbringing." Cosmo nodded thoughtfully at my words before speaking. "It's not the first time that I had this kind of discussion." We followed the being into an empty living room with plenty of windows. We stared outside. It showed us the empty streets outside. The horizon however showed multiple fires and plumes of smoke both obscuring and illuminating the dark sky.
"It's a shame that I've never cared enough to remember any of them."
"...."
I put the amulet back on, as holding it in my hoof was awkward. The shadowy being, seemingly unaware or not caring of what we had been talking, pointed outside. I quickly found what he had pointed at.
A big stadium that stood not too far away from here. Once the shadowy being saw that we had seen the stadium, it quickly skittered towards a ladder easily climbing up it with its six thin legs. Cosmo simply jumped up. It was a bit harder for me to climb up the ladder, as it clearly wasn't made for ponies. It led to the roof.
There were a whole bunch of makeshift bridges and platforms connecting all of the buildings with each other. Either connecting the roofs with each other or simply going through holes in the walls. The being walked onto one of the bridges and started walking towards the stadium. I could from time to time spot other shadowy beings heading the stadium, from the corner of my eyes.
After having crossed seven bridges and walked through two buildings, we met another being. This one had the lower body of a serpent, both of its hands were covered in bandages and two short deer-like horns on its goat-like head. It also had a satchel ,with a big red cross on it,on its shoulder. It pulled some bandages out of its bag and pointed at my ear. I hesitantly nodded.
It then very swiftly pulled my helmet off and quickly bandaged my ear. I flinched a bit and felt a bit of pain, but it didn't last long. I felt a bit of relief once it was done. The shadowy being also cleaned whatever blood hadn't dried off. It then joined us as we moved towards the stadium.
The stadium was one of the more dilapidated buildings in the area. It did not even have any doors. The rest of the building was in the same state. Missing and broken doors, old torn posters, holes in the walls and all kinds of trash littering the ground.
This building also seemed to be the only one to be inhabited. As I could see dozens, if not hundreds of shadowy beings moving around. Multiple of them were running a bar, others were happily painting all kinds of strange and nonsensical drawings on the walls. Some were sleeping on hammocks and broken beds situated on the weirdest of places.
The serpent bodied being went on its own way, while the six legged on motioned to continue following it. So we followed it. It entered an old office. There were a bunch of writing and painting utensils laying on the ground and on shelves. It then picked a piece of paper and started writing on it. On it was written 'Hi I'm' The name was unreadable to me. We greeted him back by introducing ourselves by name. 'Why are you here?' It wrote. I quickly explained how I had botched a spell, leaving some details out.
'Hmmm' It was slightly ridiculous that it had written it. 'Maybe we can help each other' "How?" I immediately asked. 'You know those things we just fought...' I nodded. 'Well there trying to kill us all and we don't really like that idea.' "I can understand why you wouldn't like that." He scribbled some more. 'You help us beat them and we help you reach that "rift'' as you called it.'
"How do I help you?" I asked curiously. I had no idea what to do or why it would even ask me. 'Very few actually care or know about what's happening. I'm one of the few that are trying to fight back. All of those others who fought alongside us were only there because I paid them. and I will soon run out of money.' It then took a clean piece of paper out and started writing again.
'I saw what you did there. A few others decided to join me. Like' He wrote another unreadable name. 'He's the one that bandaged your ear.' His mouthless face then shifted and twisted, just like Cosmo's face, as if he was smiling.
"Why?" Was the first thing I asked. He then wrote his answer. 'Because you can talk.' I found that to be a very bad reason. 'It's hard to reach big crowds with writing. They can't read it when it's too far or if someone else is standing in front of them.' He then scrunched up his face in thought. 'Also some are plean illiterate. With some I mean a sizeable amount.'
Now that made more sense. But still, to trust a complete stranger to convey a message, that I know nothing about, to a crowd of beings that aren't even of the same kind isn't a good idea. Before I could say anything he had written some more. 'Also you can speak loudly.' I felt that that was an unnecessary detail. Though I said nothing.
I gave Cosmo a quick glance. He shook his head and spoke. "I don't do speeches." I wasn't going to insist. I wanted to tell the shadowy being that this wasn't a good idea. But I couldn't help but feel that helping him so that he could then help me could be a good idea. After seeing all of the bridges and other platforms, doors and barricades on our way here and how they used them with ease it was clear that they had made them.
He and his kind probably know the layout of the city on the palm of their hoofs. Or hands in their case. And maybe there was some kind of tunnel that led directly or near the rift. Which would make getting home easier. Theoretically, if they actually had any kind of tunnel or knowledge on how to get there.
"Why do you need to convince others... eh... people?" It would be wise to know why he needed to do any kind of speech in the first place. 'You remember those things we just fought, like a few hours ago? And that big one you defeated.' I nodded in confirmation. 'Well they're trying to kill us all, which I don't like. And I want others to not like it.' "Shouldn't that be easy..."
He somehow managed to interrupt me, which is impressive seeing as he is writing. 'Most are very ignorant. Some stupid. A lot are moronic.' He then continued writing, hopefully to give me an actual and proper explanation. Cosmo meanwhile was busy looking through a pile of old books. 'Some literally don't know that we are in danger. I didn't even know that we were in danger myself until I saw a friend get stepped on. Only a bloody mess was left of him.'
I almost gave him my condolences, but decided not to. Because he did not look very bothered by what he said as he kept writing on paper. 'Since then I've done some research. Discovered that a whole bunch of creatures are trying to kill us or something and since then I've been trying to inform everyone.'
Suddenly a certain question popped up in my mind. "For how long have you been doing this?" I thought those creatures had appeared at the same time that I had entered this world. But what he says makes it look like they've been here long before me. 'Twenty-five hours, thirty-three minutes and fifty-nine seconds.' He quickly wrote. Things had been going by very quickly.
"Ok, so I help you convince everyone to fight against the invading creatures and you'll help me reach that big light somewhere in the horizon?" He nodded eagerly. I was still very hesitant. Mainly because of the speech part. Usually when I gave a speech before a crowd, it did not end well. I also knew nothing about these shadowy beings. I didn't even know how to read their names. It would be pretty easy to offend them.
'You'll have some time to prepare until everyone gets here.' "How much is everyone?" He took a few seconds to think, even using his fingers to count, before writing his answer. 'Enough to fill this stadium one and half time.' If I had been drinking anything I would have spitted it out. This was a big stadium, as big if not bigger than the biggest stadiums in all of equestria.
I never had any problem standing and talking in front of crowds, maybe if I had been I wouldn't have to flee from so many angry crowds, but they were in the dozens of ponies. This stadium could hold thousands of spectators and none of which would be ponies.
"I will think about it." That was as honest as an answer that I could give him. 'You still have some time to think and prepare. Just tell me when you're ready.' He looked slightly nervous. At least I think he does, his face is featureless so it's pretty hard to know. He then gave me a whole bunch of keys. 'This will allow you to move through the building. There's a bar on the ground floor. And a library on the third and fourth floor. And more stuff on all floors.'
I stared at the bundle of keys that I now held in my hooves. "We could go eat something. It's hard to think on an empty stomach." I had to agree with him. Eating something and having a bit of rest will probably help me think.
"Why not."
I was holding a strange box in my hooves. And I now also stood in a strange shop. I examined the box which had seven locks welded onto it while the shopkeeper examined me. Or made sure I didn't steal anything. That didn't bother me as I was busy analysing the strange wares available for sale. All kinds of shining baubles and trinkets caught my eyes.
I felt slightly disappointed that I had no money or anything to trade with, as many of the exotic wares looked very interesting. Like this box. Why would it have seven locks? Most of which looked useless. Actually a lot of other items laying around had that same issue. They looked well made but inefficient, having a lot of redundant features.
I put the box back into it's rack having no way to buy it. And I couldn't ask Cosmo as he had decided to explore the stadium on his own. So I left the strange shop. Strange because it had been built in what looked like an old hotdog selling stand, with multiple walls having seemingly been broken on purpose.
The same could be said about everything in here. Every shop, stands, stalls and booth in the stadium, and the stadium itself, were in a heavy state of damage with makeshift and shody signs of repair. A vending machine covered with nails, stairs made out of broken ladders, bookshelves made out of broken chairs and chairs made out of broken shelfs, doors that were simply holes covered with curtains and much more.
It however all had a simple charm. Or maybe it was the liveliness and tranquility of all the shadowy beings that were living and sleeping through the facility. They were playing all kinds of games, from poker to somehow stabbing each other with those same cards. Some games went from relatively normal to ridiculous and absurd.
And quite brutal at times. There were times where they would throw each other around causing who knows how much property damage. I almost got hit by a four legged being that got thrown through a door as I passed by. He quickly got up and ran back only to be thrown into the wall. This repeated itself multiple times before I decided to leave.
The beings themselves were pretty nice, but like only five or six of them used paper and ink to write with. Which made communicating challenging. I had to try and read their body language, which was hard as none of them were very pony-like and made even harder as they had no facial features. Not even the mouths.
One taught was kind enough to teach me how to use the vending machines laying around after I almost maimed myself. The machines had the unpleasant habit of turning whatever snake you chose into high velocity ballistic projectiles. Also ,ever used those that aren't covered in at least two dozen nails, for some reason.
They also had no problem sleeping anywhere and everywhere. Some sleeped on broken stairs, while others lay on discarded piles of sharp debriss. Some sleepely dangled from holes in the walls and floors. I laughed a bit as I saw one of them was sleeping while attached onto the ceiling with duct tape.
I was starting to get the hang to the layout of the building after having gotten lost repeatedly. Which I did just now after having entered an unexplored area(by me) of the stadium. After having bumbled around for about fifteen minutes I entered the seating area overlooking the playing field. It was relatively crowded. Some just sat alone while others stood in groups doing who knows what.
The playing field itself was much more crowded than the seating area. The beings there were playing all kinds of games and sports without rhyme or reason. At least I think so. There were quite a few explosions and a whole bunch of beings being thrown into the air. It was also an incoherent mess.
As there were plenty of different groups playing all kinds of different games , sometimes bumping into other groups. It was an entertaining sight to say the least.
Until a makeshift rocket flew near me blowing a dozen seats into pieces. So I left. I thought about where to head. I could go to the library and see what strange literature was likely there. Or I could go to a restaurant and eat something else. I decided not to, after remembering the prevalent smell of cooked meat that had been there.
The roof would give me a good view of the surrounding area. And I was curious about what kind of contraptions would be situated there.
Cannons and catapults. That's what lay on the roof. All kinds of makeshift armaments that looked like they would disintegrate upon use.
Reaching the roof was easy enough, the only challenge being the ramshackle stairs and a locked door. I opened the door with the keys that I had been given earlier. Only a dozen shadowy beings could be seen hanging around onto the floor. Tending and repairing the makeshift artillery.
One of which exploded without any reason. Which was not reassuring.
I decided to ignore the volatile armament and examined the horizon. The glowing pillar of light that indicated the rift was concealed by the distance and plumes of smoke. The signs of ever progressing destruction were however slowly getting closer and closer.
I looked up into the sky seeing only a dark expanse filled with some dim stars. Not even any kind of moonlight.
A shadowy being tapped on my shoulder. I looked at him and the piece of paper he was holding 'Should I be worried about that.' He pointed towards the increasing signs of damage. I simply nodded. This made him look worried before he left to continue working on a triple barreled arbalest.
I thought a bit. Getting from here to the rift, which should allow me to head back home, would not be easy. And if I succeeded then I would be leaving all of the inhabitants of this realm alone to their fate. Which did not sit well with me.
Twilight had been searching through her library for the past seven hours. She wanted to find an old book that Celestia had shown her while younger. It talked about traveling through dimensions, but she had ignored it when younger as all of the info written into it had been theoretical and hypothetical.
But now after going to another dimension through a mirror and seeing the past and present getting changed, she felt it could be useful. And she was pretty sure that Celestia had given her that book. Now she only needed to find it. Unfortunately she had forgotten the title of said book. She also didn't know what she was going to do with that book.
It was mostly out of curiosity to be honest. Celestia's teaching, which were mostly lessons about what not to do, meant she knew what kind of magic Trixie had used. So she had a faint hope that the book could give her some useful information.
But that would require Twilight to find the book first. If she couldn't find it then she would have to ask Celestia if she remembered it. Because maybe Celestia hadn't send it to her. The only thing Twilight remembered was it's fairly silly cover picture.
"Twilight?"
Twilight was suddenly pulled out of her thoughts by Spike. She couldn't ask Spike for help as she didn't know how to properly describe the book. "Yes Spike?" Spike had entered the room. "Applejack needs your help with something." He said. Applejack then entered the room.
Twilight put the book she was currently holding onto a neat pile. She would continue searching later. After quickly greeting each other Applejack started explaining her problem. Twilight found it quite strange, but it wouldn't take too long to solve.
Twilight had quickly solved Applejacks problem. It actually was a nice break. But now back to searching for a book, for a few more hours. For once she wasn't excited about the idea, because of how vaguely she remembered it. She did find a few other interesting titles. She was also getting tired as it was already night.
The multiverse, Theories of the multiverse, dimensional travel?, barriers and limits and other titles like that. She had read some of the more interesting ones. All of them were either about theoretical science or were just nonsense made by someone with too much time on their hands. She might have to check the Manehattan and canterlot libraries for any more reading material. Hopefully written by an actual scientist.
Twilight mindlessly picked another book out of the book racks, sipping out of a cup of coffee. She stared at it without much thought, not having much hope in the book being interesting or useful.
She spat the coffee out of her mouth as she stared at the cover. "Found you."
I, Trixie, entered the office that the six legged pony headed shadow being, with an unreadable name, stayed in. I had decided to help him as I came to the conclusion that I needed his help more than he needed mine. I bursted in, taking him by surprise as he was busy reading some book about engineering or something like that.
"I need to know how everything the uuhm... people that you want me to convince." He somehow managed to raise one of his non-existent eyebrows. I simply continued speaking. "Like how are they organised, why are you all here, are there different gangs or cliques or anything like that like that."
He nodded in understanding and started writing. 'We are technically a "clique", in the same way that all of those living in the harbors would themselves be considered a clique. Meanly because were born in or near those area.' "Living in the harbor?" I asked confusedly. He tilted his head staring at me before continuing with his writing. 'Well not all of us live near this stadium. Actually there are only around less than twenty thousand people that live around. The harbors have a population double that size and even more up north near the old factories. Millions if you cross the bridges west of here.'
I stood there with my mouth open (figurativly) and probably looked very stupid. The being stared at me, his face slowly shifting with the realisation. And then he started laughing, or at least the way he moved his body and the strange sound he made looked like laughter. He picked up another piece of paper and then quickly started scribeling. 'You thought the entire population of this continent lived in one single place?!'
I shamefully nodded. He slammed his hand on a desk, before laughing some more. Which then turned into wheezing. ''This city alone could hold like three million people and the cities around it can hold just as many if not more. And then there's the hundreds of known islands, multiple peninsulas, three archipelagos and two other known continents. Not counting the one we are currently standing on. Doesn't the place you come from also have that?!
"I kinda thought so because everything is empty. This is the only place with any kind population that I've seen all the time that I have been here." He steadied himself, trying to stop laughing. 'To be fair there's only a few million of us spread over a landmass that can theoretically support billions.' I tried to change the subject away from my little mess up, but then a thought came up.
"Wait, you only want me to convince those in these stadiums to fight, but what about the rest?" 'Were the closest to the things near us. Also we don't have any real way to communicate with the rest. So the plan is to either defeat them on our own or to slowly retreat while fighting, which would cause all of the others to notice us and prepare then join us in the fight. Which will be more likely.'
I was slightly baffled by his plan. "And what if they don't join the fight?" He chuckled a bit. 'Maybe not all of them but Allegria will join the fight. She can't conquer this continent if we're all dead. She also has a very big army, has some six million subjects and twice as many weapons.'
I audibly groaned as there was even more stuff I didn't know and all of this would definitely come into play. "Who is this Allegria?" I asked reluctantly. 'Just some gall whose tail was one day crushed by a big metal object, that we now know to be a tank, and at the same time a big book with cool pictures fell on her head. And since then she's been trying to unite everything, whatever that might mean.'
I inhaled deeply. "So you're hoping that a violent conqueror will come to your help? I that right?" 'Actually to be a violent conqueror you would have to be violent. And seeing as the only thing she does is walk in and tell everyone that she has more stuff and is smarter she is the leader. So she can't be violent.' He retorted.
"Politics'' was the first thing that came to my mind. "Okay let's put that aside, I need to know more about this place so I don't do anything wrong in my speech or whatever I try to do to convince everyone to fight." He happily nodded and pulled a sizable stack of paper out. 'I'll keep it simple.' He had a featureless smile on his face as he wrote that.
"Okay so ninety percent of the people here, stay here because they can be as violent and wild as they want to be and demolish everything?" He nodded in confirmation. "And the other twelve procent, because both groups intertwine, are here because they can tinker with all there broken stuff or learn medicine by healing everyone that gets wounded here?" He nodded again.
I took a very deep breath. "And you're part of both?" He pointed at some, using one of his fingers, contraption in a corner that looked like it was made with not-so-peaceful intentions. I also felt slightly jealous, because those fingers looked extremely useful. How do earth ponies even grab stuff, especially the kind of stuff that you don't want to have in your mouth.
That would a question for another time. Probably never. Back on point I discovered quite some interesting stuff. They had been living here for around four centuries, assuming that time here is the same as in Equestria, though the stadium was already there from what he and his kind could recall. This was also a cult of violence to put it bluntly. They took immense pleasure from both inflicting and receiving wounds and blows. Some even got aroused by it. That made me want to puke when I first heard... well read that.
They were careful not to inflict any fatal or maining wounds, but broken bones and the occasional scar were fair game. back In Equestria this would have been horrifying, but here it's just a normal tuesday. And, I did find that to be slightly reassuring, they would only inflict wounds on those willing to receive wounds. Meaning that they would first ask If you wanted to get hurt and if you said no then they would respect that.
This however did make my task at hoof easier. I needed to convince them to fight, which they loved doing. I just needed to find the proper way to convey said message. Also the shadowy being in front of me, I wish that I knew how to read his name, that he had some two-a-three hundred beings already on his side.
He also mentioned that there was some kind of leadership role or position. He skimmed over it, writing that it wasn't that important.
They used the stadium because it was big, sturdy and filled with a whole bunch of miscellaneous items. They also organised a whole bunch of games and fights in the center of the stadium. One of which would start in half-a-day. Everyone would be there. So it would be a perfect occasion to give a speech to everyone.
I had been given a pen and a piece of paper to write my "speech" on it. I still had some time, so I went to work on it.
I moved through the now crowded hallways and stairs in search of a good seat. More and more of the shadowy beings were pouring into the stadium. I had decided to keep my armor on as pretty much every other spectator had some kind of protection on.
They sat on piles of boxes or makeshift platforms to watch the proceedings. I was fortunate enough to find one of the few chairs that had not been brutally butchered. I held a pile of paper with my "speech" written on it. It was mostly empty with a few words written on it. Talking in front of a few spectators watching my magic show was one thing. But now I was trying to convince a lot of very violent beings to go to what was basically war.
But for now I would watch the games, which would give me some more time to think.
There were currently two teams on the field. Well I assumed those were two different teams because on one side they all wore red clothes, rags and helmets and the other wore the same stuff but green. There were also two flags, one on each side and the field had been filled with temporary structures.
Another I noticed were three beings that were seated in a more luxurious and less damaged looking stand not too far away from me. The three of them also wore what looked like silver bracelets and pendants alongside intact clothes. Actually those looked more like ceremonial robes than the kind of clothes you would normally wear. Possibly the leaders or higher ups of this place? One of them was much tinier and actually looked much younger than the two others.
I decided that it was currently not important.
I saw one of the mouthless, as in no mouth, shadowy beings somehow use a whistle. The games then started. Both sides then proceed to carefully advance through the maze of boxes and scrap piles. And then both sides reached each other. I then winced and ended up half covering my eyes as the violence started and then quickly escalated.
The show had started
I had to admit that some of the events were quite fascinating. Some actually were simply about acrobatics. It was both fascinating and oddly morbid to see beings with snake tails for lower bodies compete with beings with six or eight legs. Though it did often escalate in violence.
Some of the events also were much more graceful than others. During one of those events, the participants wore intricate, graceful and well designed robes made out of silk instead of the torn rags that everyone else was wearing. They then proceeded to either dance, do acrobatics or a combination of both and it did not end in violence.
Some of the other events involved shooting big metal and wooden cylinders at immobile piles of scrap, shooting those same cylinders at each other, multiple ball games with a varied amount of violence, throwing stuff including each other far away, straight up boxing and wrestling and a whole bunch of other stuff.
They were also playing music this whole time through some broken loudspeakers. Except when some musicians went on a makeshift stage to play with their instruments.
I would have to go to that stage and talk to the thousands of beings present here. This made me nervous and I started sweating. Especially since this was the last game and the shadowy being that had asked to speak in front of everyone had come to bring me there.
I started following him inside when I suddenly heard something crash into the ground. And everything had gone silent. No clapping, no whistling, not even the sound of something getting hit. We both turned around. All eyes were aimed at the stand that I had seen with the three more luxurious and elegant beings.
One was holding the tiniest of the three in its arms. The tiniest and youngest looking one looked utterly terrified and huddled in the arms of it's taller compatriot. The third one was nowhere to be seen. Instead a railcar stood in its place, having crashed into the stand and likely crushed the being there.
Another wagon, this time a locomotive, landed on the playing field crushing multiple of the participants.
And then another.
And then a dozen more.
The destruction left by the wagons, carts, pieces of buildings and even boats was quickly overshadowed by a humongous screech let out by what had to be thousands of creatures.
This was then answered by the sound of just as many knives, swords, axes and other miscellaneous weaponry being unsheathed.
Everyone quickly retreated inside and more and more objects fell into the seats crushing anyone unfortunate enough to be there.
I followed the mass of shadows carefully moving through the stadium's hallway. They were pulling all kinds of weapons out of lockers,previously locked rooms and even from inside a few broken vending machines.
Many went to the upper levels with bows, crossbow, bombs and other kinds of ranged weaponery. The majority had all kinds of both blunt and sharp weapons on them and a few of them carried shields. Some actually looked like professional soldiers as they were wearing some intricate sets of armor, unlike the rest who wore either broken and rusty plates of metal or nothing at all.
I tried not to stay in their way and not attract any kind of attention, but my own glowin, shiny armor and mace made the latter practically impossible. One of the beings who was given orders and wearing a peaked cap saw me, and after looking at me with a curious stare, made it clear that I should follow the rest towards the lowers levels, by pointing at the stairs.
I tried to say no but a surprisingly threatening glare shut me up. So I just nodded and went down. I reached the entrance and saw that no one had gone outside. They were all waiting inside for anything stupid enough to rush inside. Some peaked around the corners to try and get a look at whatever was outside.
I tried to see if Cosmo was around, but I could not find him anywhere.
I squealed as something tapped on my shoulder. This caused a whole bunch of the shadowy beings to stare at me and a few let out a chuckle. I turned around and saw the pony-faced being that wanted me to give some kind of big speech. Well that wouldn't happen anymore.
I actually only recognised him because of the piece of paper in his left hand and his six long legs. He was wearing some very thick goggles and the lower part of his face and heck were covered in cloth. He was wearing a big belt around his waist and had suspenders attached to it. All of which were covered in pouches and bags. In his right hand he held a strange object made out of wood and metal.
The metal part was basically a hollow cylinder. One side was attached to a piece of wood and the other side was wider and had holes in it. The wooden part was wider, but shorter than the metal cylinder. It was strangely carved and seeing how he held it with his left right hand it was probably carved like that so it would be easy to hold. There was also a rectangular hole into it. A strange looking bolt on top of the contraption.
There was also a trigger attached to it, it was much tinier and more refined than the ones used back in Equestria.
Probably because we don't have fingers.
"Can I call you Fred?" I asked him. His fingers in his right hand swiftly shifted through the tiny pile of papers. It was pretty impressive that he could do that with one hand. As he shifted through them I saw that all the papers had one word written on it. Words like; no, left, up, back or behind and other stuff like that. One simply had an exclamation mark drawn on it. He stopped when he reached the piece of paper with the word yes written on it.
"Ok Fred, so what happens now?" I asked with a nervous smile. He shoved the papers into one of his pouches, pointed towards the entrance to the stadium and then put one of his fingers across his throat. I confidently guessed that that meant nothing good.
I decided to ask him what the contraption that he was holding was, as I had nothing better to do. "I know you're busy, but what is that thing that you're holding?" He pulled out a piece of paper with the word gun written on it.
I took a careful peek outside out of curious stupidity. Most of the lights had gone out. I could actually see some lanterns that had clearly been smashed to pieces.
And then I heard the sound of movement. Like if hundreds of tiny creatures were skittering towards here, alongside something much bigger that shook the earth with each step that it made.
And then I saw their silhouette and the glint of their eyes. They were slowly approaching using the darkness as cover. I quickly went back inside. The look on my face told the shadows inside everything they needed to know. This was quickly confirmed by other beings that had been taking peeks outside.
Fred and another bunch of beings that were holding "guns" moved and put themselves in front of the entrances. They aimed said guns through all kinds of gaps and holes. And then they pressed the triggers.
And I was then deafened and blinded. Hundreds of bright flashes of lights appeared out of the contraptions alongside hundreds of deafening loud bangs. Fred moved the bolt of the gun each time he fired it. I could hear the pained screeches of the creatures outside.
I had to admit that I was slightly impressed at the efficiency of those "guns". The longer they could keep the creatures at bay, the better.
And at that exact same moment a barrel was thrown through one of the doors and slammed into a few of the shadowy beings. This distracted pretty much everyone inside long enough for the creatures to get close.
The first creatures to enter were slender and had dark gray scales. Their front legs ended with claws twice the size of my horn and they had a pair of extremely thick horns that covered the back of their reptilian head and they had multiple tinier horns on their snout. They were also followed by some of the tinier creatures.
The beings with bows, crossbows and guns retreated to the back, allowing the armored and shield bearing beings in the front. The beings in the front took out knives, swords, clubs and other kinds of weapons as the creatures lept on them.
Everything quickly devolved into a bloody melee.
And I was in the middle of it.
Cosmo was nowhere to be seen.
Blood splashed onto my face as a being was dismembered by very long claws.
The sharp thing flying towards me was a claw. That claw was still attached to a creature. I did not notice it in time, but fortunately, someone else did. The creature was stabbed by a jagged blade under its jaw that pierced through it's whole skull.
The blade itself was a shiny sickle, with a gold colored grip. The being holding the blade was one of those very elegantly clothed beings that I saw back in the more luxurious stand. It had discarded its robes and most of its silky clothes. It was still wearing pants and covered in different bracelets and necklaces. It also had... Tattoos? The white markings on its body did not look natural.
The being held a sickle in one hand and a shortsword in the other. It was bipedal, had a long, thin tail and had a three-eyed dragon head. It elegantly swung its blades around lopping limbs off. The way it moved looked like it was dancing. A beautiful and bloody dance. It clearly noticed me, but seemed content ignoring me.
I became aware of my surroundings again as more blood splattered on my face.
And I panicked. And felt sickly.
I managed to calm down after taking cover behind a big metal plate. I stared at the mace that I was holding in my hoof and had somehow not dropped it. And the amulet was glowing brightly. I could feel the magic coursing through me. I could use some illusions to help in the fighting. Or maybe just blast something with magic.
Coming up with an idea of what illusions to use wasn't easy because of all of the infernal noise around me. So I would just have to blast something in the face. Or use levitation in a clever way. I quickly proved how clever I was by lifting a big box up with my magic, both a few creatures and beings stared at the floating, glowing box with curiosity, before blindly throwing it into the fray.
It clearly angered something, as long claws pierced through my metal cover, almost impaling me. One of the slender, gray scaled creatures had noticed me and was now trying to claw my face off. I grabbed it with my magic and threw it away in panic, while it's claws were still stuck into the metal plate. This caused most of its claws to snap off.
Unfortunately more creatures noticed this. Some of the tinier three headed, six armed or hedgehog like creatures managed to slip by the shadowy beings and heading straight towards me. I swung my mace wildly, hitting one of the hedgehogs in the face. A loud crack was heard and blood flew out of the creature's nose.
I then blindly and wildly blasted some spells in their directions. Most mist, but two of the creatures were violently thrown back. The others were also slowed down as they tried to dodge all of my spells. This made them easier targets for the shadowy beings. Some of the creatures were shot by guns or bows or other projectile weapons. Others decided that the beings were more of a threat and went to combat them.
Only three of the creatures were still heading towards me. A devious Idea came to mind. I fired a few spells trying to hit the one in front. I got slightly desperate as they kept dodging my attacks and getting closer. I finally managed to hit it and then it proceeds to swell up and blow up in a gross and disturbing fashion. The other two creatures look at me and then at each other before running away.
The gory mess disappeared and was replaced by the (unconscious?) and intact body of the creature. I Silently thanked that one horror movie I had seen along time ago, as it gave me the idea for that ilusion. I also was impressed by how... realistic it was. Which caused me to stare at the amulet. I was obviously disturbed by the fact that as far as I knew, it was powered by blood. And I was partially covered in blood. And both fortunately and unfortunately it wasn't my blood.
One of the gigantic cyclopen creatures suddenly burst through a wall and crushed multiple beings and creatures. It then swung it's long arms around. It was unceremoniously taken out as its skull was partially blown to smithereens by some strange looking firework.
I found the ones responsible for taking out the cyclops. They were busy loading another strange looking firework into a long tube. They then fired it. Multiple creatures were blown up by it. They then reloaded it again and repeated this over and over again.
This proved quite devastating. Even more when the shadowy beings started bringing more of those contraptions alongside different kinds of canons.
This was answered by multiple cyclops and creatures as big as them bursting inside alongside another wave of the tinier creatures.
More blood and limbs flew around in a violent and chaotic manner. I tried to avoid puking as the smell of blood became more and more pungent. Unfortunately, I was starting to get used to all of this.
Or maybe that was for the best? Who knew how long I would stay here. And if I kept panicking then I wouldn't survive for long, even less go back home. Especially as another creature was heading towards me. I took a deep breath. Lifted my mace. I would have to fight for my life.
I then blasted the creature in the chest, throwing it back into the fray. I then shouted and reluctantly jumped into the fray blasting spells, breaking bones and joining the fight. Using my armor and illusions to protect myself as much as possible.
Everything looked grim as the walls and floor were colored red. Both sides had been butchering each other for what had to have been hours. I myself was covered in cuts and bruises. However the magic from the amulet kept me awake and dulled the pain.
The fighting had escalated as the creatures managed to enter some of the other floors. They had smashed through the walls and were now climbing up the walls.
I hadn't done that much in that time. I had simply swung my mace around and fired some spells, which had allowed me to knock a few creatures out. But it wasn't much compared to the utter tartarus that had been inflicted on both sides. I knew that, the beings knew that and even the creatures knew it. As they had stopped attacking and were regrouping and taking cover. Both sides had taken cover behind the rubble and different kinds of shields.
I was grateful for the breather that this temporary stalemate allowed. Though it wasn't peaceful, at all. Sometimes a creature would spit in our direction and a being would fire back. And the opposite happened just as often. There was also the throwing of miscellaneous objects. mainly rocks.
Both sides were also busy licking their wounds. What doctors, I assumed, were busy amputating and sewing limbs back together. Weapons were being reloaded and repaired. Swords were being replaced and shields were patched in all possible ways.
Fred didn't look worse for wear. He was simply busy instaling what looked like a bigger gun with a lever. The being with nice clothes and jewelry stood close to me. It still had it's sickle in one hand. It's shortsword was missing. And so was the lower half of it's other arm, with only a bandaged stump remaining.
It then stood up as it and all of the other beings were now ready to continue fighting.
However at that moment all of the creatures ran outside through the doors and holes in the walls. To the surprise of everyone present. After standing there confused for a few seconds, some of the beings looked like they might be about to cheer thinking that they had won. This feeling was quickly dashed as a big thump could be heard. Which caused the confusion to come back.
This thumping slowly became louder and louder. It then caused the ground to shake. Panic slowly spread amongst everyone, as they had no idea what caused this. I however had an idea. And it was bad. We all started retreating away from the entrances.
As I backed away I bumped into something. Cosmo. He stood there, with a smile on his face. "Start act 2." He said with a joyful tone.
A gigantic claw then slammed through the walls, causing everything to shake and many of the supports and walls to collapse on themselves crushing anything unfortunate enough to be beneath them.
As everything collapsed around me collapsed, some of the rubble went straight towards me. But then Cosmo simply slapped it away before it could hit me. Actually he seemed to be keeping the hallway from totally collapsing and burying all of us beneath it. Yet he did not seem bothered by anything happening around him. Nonchalant as always.
The gigantic creatures meanwhile kept slamming their claws in the stadium, destroying the building at an impressive speed. As their massive claws tore through thick concrete, like a hot knife through butter. Though the creatures themselves were pretty silent, not screeshing or screaming. Though the sound of destruction was pretty deafening.
I was however the only one to notice it. Either that or everyone else was too busy fleeing away to care about some lack of noise. And I followed suit. Cosmo seemed content with stopping some of the rubble of falling through magic allowing most of us to survive and flee.
We ran until we bumped into another group of fleeing beings. And then a third group bumped into us. They quickly talked with each other. I had no idea what they were talking about as they used their strange body language to communicate. I saw Fred not to far away. I managed to push my way towards him, by slipping under their legs. I tapped his shoulder causing him to turn around.
"What are they talking about?!" I had to shout due to the loud sound of destruction around me. He pulled a shredded note of paper out of a pouch and wrote on it. 'surrounded breaking walls' He hastily wrote. I could feel myself becoming paller. If we were surrounded then there would be no escape. I could feel panic rearing its ugly head up again.
There was nothing great about panicking this much. If I wanted to be the great and powerful Trixie then I would have to calm down. I now had access to a... "strange" source of magic.
Unfortunately I was not allowed to think as I was pushed around as we all went down the stairs to the lower levels. Which would cause us to get stuck and buried under even more rubble. I tried to say something but I was dragged along by the masses.
It then became clear why they were heading lower as I saw those in front disappeared into the ground as we reached the center and lowest level of the stadium. Multiple holes had been dug into the ground leading to the sewers. And the beigns were now climbing and jumping down using dozens of ropes and ladders. They were escaping out of this crumbling deathtrap.
And I followed them without hesitation. Though it was awkward for me as the way down had been made for beings with hands and longer legs. But I succeeded using some magic. Once I reached the lower level I could see the beings running through dozens of different tunnels.
Cosmo swiftly followed with a smile. He then pointed toward some tunnel with a big grin on his face. I decided to follow his advice. Not because I trusted him. But I feared what might happen if I didn't listen to him.
There was fighting and chaos everywhere. The tunnels lead to all kinds of platforms, open areas and even the surface. The shadowy beings fought from fortified positions build underground, while the creatures fought with claws, spit and even magic. I saw creatures with crystals growing on their backs throwing devastating spells around. And if things weren't bad enough already I saw multiple creatures that looked almost exactly like Jossefina and they were doing a lot of damage.
The sound of violence and shouts from the dying was deafening. And I was there. Moving and dodging as much as possible. It proved easier with Cosmo close to me. Most projectiles bounced off him or broke against his skin and creatures that got too close were slapped away.
Friendly fire was also a problem. On multiple occasions I was almost set on fire by beings that used contraptions tied to their back that fired very long and big flames. And they made liberal use of explosives. I saw what shrapnel could do as some of the creatures attacking us were torn to shreds by it.
This made me wish that I was proficient at casting shield spells. Levitation still proved to be a useful defense.
Still as much damage as the shadowy beings were doing, it was clearly a losing battle as they were outnumbered and were being cut off from each other. This is why they were still fleeing away. From what I could guess we were going West, but I was most likely wrong.
After running for another half hour, multiple collapsing tunnels and blasting who knows how many creatures unconscious, we entered a massive underground area. Massive was a slight understatement as a town twice or thrice the size of ponyville could easily fit here. There were also dozens of different entrances leading here. Even multiple underground railways.
And the shadowy beings were pouring through there and heading straight to the other side where an open steel door lay. Siad door was surrounded by towers, turrets, trenches and all kinds of different defensive buildings. And those defenses were busy firing on any creature that tried to enter this room.
Unfortunately an utter flood of creatures were charging in. Pouring through some of the tunnels or burying their way in from above. As I was distracted by all of my surrounding and everything happening around me, I lost track of Cosmo once again. As I tried to search for him once again a winged creature one and a half times my size leapt down from the ceiling straight towards me.
As it got closer to my unaware and oblivious self, I got pushed out of the way by the nicely clothed, now on armed, being who then showed her sycle down the creature's neck, thus saving my life. Before I could even think of thanking them, they pulled me along towards the door.
I followed them without any real hesitation, especially when I noticed when we were amongst the last beings to not have crossed through the door. And also the creatures trying to kill us were now pouring through EVERY SINGLE DOOR, TUNNEL AND ENTRANCE to get to us.
And they were clearly faster than us.
A convenient and fortunate pile of stone collapsed on some of our pursuers and slowed most of them down. Allowing us to cross though and then all of the beings in trenches and towers followed us in, before slamming the door shut.
The door had led to an underground bridge which led to even more tunnels. I couldn't help but stare back at the metal door behind us. It seemed capable of holding almost anything back and the ceiling above our heads was clearly much thicker and made out of better materials.
Obviously staying here alone was not a good idea, so I followed the beings who hadn't stopped running.
After a few minutes we reached another big room. I could see that most of those that remained had stopped here to rest and mend their wounds. I sat down on a box to rest. I then noticed a ponyhole cover nearby. I unwisely opened it and took a peek outside.
Instead of seeing a city and houses like before, the only thing I could see were thick stone buildings, towers, castels, clearly fortified buildings, barricades and even a fortress a bit farther off. All of it was empty.
That was until she saw one of the massive shapes in the horizon get closer. Possibly one of those that had been destroying the stadium.
And then it died. I think. What looked like it's head blew up. A lot of stuff blew as the sound of cannons could be heard. Hundreds, if not thousands of cannons. And then the sound of guns also started and increased.
I slowly closed the ponyhole cover as more and more creatures appeared only to be obliterated by a hail of cannon and gunfire.
"What do we do?" I heard someone ask. "Were in UIN territory, so we should probably submit to them, especially since our home, well it doesn't exist anymore." Answered another. "If it'll allow me to kill those sons of bitches then gladly!" Shouted someone else angrily.
"Wait you can talk?!" I half shouted as it dawned on me that the once speakers were the mouthless beings. Those nearby turned towards me and started with a confused look. I mean, yes?" answered one of them very confused. "But you couldn't talk before?!" I asked with the most confused tone I could muster.
"Yeah, and?" Asked another.
"You can talk, why are you bothered that we can talk?" "There's more important stuff going on than who can or can't talk?" They then all started discussing with each other about what to do.
I then saw Fred sitting somewhere and headed towards him. And I could also hear him talk. Yet he had no mouth and he wasn't using any pieces of paper any more to communicate. This actually made the reason why he needed my help useless. I asked the only thing I could ask.
"How?"
Somewhere else, at the same time, in a place that isn't filled with violence.
Twilight was busy reading a very old and thick book. This book was covered in all kinds of runes and text. She was also taking all kinds of notes. Celestia had told her about said book and Twilight got it from the more secure areas of canterlot archives. And she had been reading it for the past day. She had also taken a few other books that she felt could help her.
Her serious face slowly turned to a confused face, before a joyful smile appeared on her face as she read one specific passage over and over again. She giggled to herself and pulled some off her notes out. What she had learned would prove very useful.
She stood up from her very uncomfortable position, her back cracking. She would first get a back massage before preparing a very interesting spell. Though she would have to ask Celestia for some more help and confirmation. Better make sure that everything is alright.
Twilight should have been on her way to Fillydelphia. Celestia was currently residing at a hotel there, enjoying the local tourist attraction. Luna was currently heading there from a mountain trip. Both had agreed to help her with her current predicament. She should be heading towards the city.
But she wasn't.
Because she was covered in something pink.
"Pinkie!" Twilight half-shouted at the pink pony of pinkish coloration. "It's here!" Said the pinkish equine while looking around the room. "Who's there?" asked Twilight with an annoyed tone. "The cake destroyer, slayer of sweets and blight of pastry!" Twilight didn't know how to react to Pinkie's antics. Which was the only way to properly react when she was involved.
"Look, Pinkie, I'm busy. I have to meet with Celestia and Luna to ask them some questions, so I really don't have time for any of your antics." Twilight was standing back up after having bumped into Pinkie. She was also picking all of her books and papers back up. The sight of her neatly organized files standing there unorganized on the floor. At least it was clean.
Until multiple cupcakes fell out of Pinkie's mane. Twilight face-hooved at the sight. "See!" She pointed at the cupcakes. "It struck again!" She shouted. "Who!" asked Twilight, more annoyed at her friends' antics. Twilight had to hurry. She knew there might be a chance to rescue Trixie. And she wanted to make sure it was actually true. And if possible, save Trixie before it was too late.
Which explained that she was carrying a 500 page book that was at least two millennia old. And that most pony would have frowned upon its contents. Twilight did not enjoy the contents of the old book, but she was morbidly curious. She was also doing this to try and save another pony. A particularly unlucky one.
This made her even less patient towards Pinkie's antics. Twilight picked everything back up with her magic and tried to leave. "Look I really need to leave. I had to shift my schedule around to have enough time to go to Fillydelphia. If I miss this meeting then I'll have to wait for months before having enough time available again. And I can't wait for that long." Twilight then left through the door.
"But...but the cakes..." Muttered Pinkie as she followed. A cake fell out her mane. "Pinkie, it was just cleaned yesterday!" Twilight shouted. She knew not to question why her friend kept anything in her mane, the only thing she would get was a headache. "NOOOOOooo..."Screamed Pinkie in anguish, not listening to her friend.
Twilight sighed. She didn"t have the time to lose. So she left while Pinkie was distracted. "Take me with you." Siad Pinkie taking twilight by surprise. "Why!?" She asked both in confusion and annoyance. "To catch the..." She proceeded to name three dozen different combinations of confectionaries and synonyms of destroying, to Twilight's dismay. She took a quick look at a clock on the wall. Only one minute before her train would depart.
Twilight teleported in a panic. Leaving Pinkie alone.
Twilight quickly reappeared. She grabbed some other papers she had forgotten. "SorryPinkiegotgottogo..." Before teleporting again.
Twilight sat on board of the train, reassured that he hadn't missed it. She felt slightly guilty about how she had left her behind. But the soft vibrations of the train were surprisingly sooting. It was going to be a fairly long trip and she hadn't slept well in a while, so why not take a nap?
However before she could take a nap she noticed a very colorful package out of the corner of eyes. Pinkie was obviously hiding inside that box. And because she thought that it meant Pinkie wasn't hiding in that. And that meant that she was actually hiding in the package. Which meant...
The whole I know that you know that I know that you know... That kind of stuff. Why was she even trying to rationalize it? It's Pinkamena Pie, there is no explaining it.
Another pony then picked the package up and walked away.
Hmmm, so Pinkie wasn't inside it. She had completely expected her friend to be in it. "Thump" She turned towards the window from where the sound had come.
"Tmwiligmth" "AAAAAHHH..."
"and that's why we need to stop it, because if not the cupcakeindustrywillcrum..." Pinkie had been extremely busy talking about some mysterious cake murderer. Fortunately she was so busy that she hadn't noticed when Twilight had cast a silencing spell and slept for a while. She was currently very tempted to cast it again. She wouldn't, she wasn't as tired anymore and not stuck on a train. Also she respected her friend too much to do that again.
Right now she had to meet the ex-princesses at their hotel. Which was the most luxurious one in the city. Because having Celestia or Luna use any of your services was one of the greatest honors and was some of the best publicities that a pony could get.
That currently wasn't very important to the situation. However the fact that it was close to the train station was important.
The two ponies quickly reached the hotel. The clerk had no problem pointing them to the ex-princesses room because Twilight was the current ruler of Equestria and had been told in advance about her arrival by Celestia. Their room was on the last floor and it was the "royal" suite.
And the elevator currently wasn't working.
Walking up the stairs wasn't challenging in any way as Twilight had the stamina of an alicorn and the pink pony did not know what tired meant. She also had not stopped talking about all kinds of nonsensical topics that somehow always ended with sweets getting destroyed by some nondescript entity. Twilight on the verge of a head-ache knocked onto the door.
It was quickly opened by disheveled and clearly tired Luna. "I did not know you were bringing a friend." Said Luna trying not to yawn. "It was a last minute change." Answered Twilight, or tried to before being interrupted by her friend. "Hi Luna, have you noticed the mysterious and horrible attackonallsweetsandcakesandcandy..." Luna simply stared at the rambling pony.
"I'm too tired for this." Luna said weakly. "Did you not sleep well?" Asked Twilight with a slight hint of worry in her voice. "Do not worry, I have just... hmmm. Fornication, I fornicated a lot for the past day and only went to sleep an hour ago." Luna quickly reassured. Twilight was both surprised and unsurprised at Luna's bluntness.
"Oh, I get what you're saying. Wink, wink!" Pinkie said while winking in a very exaggerated way. "I think it might not mean what you think it means." Luna said hesitantly. Pinkie quickly answered without a second thought.``Oh, I do. Me and Cheese Sandwich learned it together. It's when you..." "Pinkie!!" Twilight's face had turned red and Luna just stared in bewilderment.
The tension was lifted when Celestia entered the room.” Twilight, how it pleases me to see you. And you brought a friend. How unexpected." Unexpected was the correct word, Twilight silently thought. Pinkie then started ranting about cakes again while Celestia listened with a smile and Luna started with mild amusement.
Two hours later all smiles and amusement had disappeared. "....And that's why we need to bring a big mallet to punch it's cake destroying claws."
"That was... interesting. Now that you're finished I think we have something important to do." Celestia said as politely as she could. Luna was busy sipping from her fifth cup of coffee. "Uh..wha...Yes, Pri... I mean Celestia I brought this and need your help getting Trixxie back." Twilight had zoned out after having heard Pinkie repeat herself multiple times. She put the book and her notes on top of the dinner table.
Celestia took one look at the old book, but she didn't even need to as she already knew about it. "A deterrent to the dark and forbidden arts. A blunt but accurate title. Made with good intentions, it's writer used thousands of dark spells and artifacts so he could write them down as a warning for it's reader. So many dark rituals and sacrifices made to prevent them."
"Who was the writer?" Twilight asked with morbid curiosity. "No one knows. I was still young when it was written, around my thirties, Luna actually knows a bit more as the last artifact to have been written in the book was about the alicorn amulet, which Luna is partially responsible for creating." Twilight turned towards Luna.” There isn't much written about the amulet, do you know why?"
Luna, while still tired, dutifully answered. "He simply disappeared. After having put his hooves on the amulet, or more precisely the gem in the amulet. No pony knows how, did he die? Go mad? Leave the continent? The only thing he left was this book."
"What about the gem?" Twilight asked. She was going to ask as many questions as possible to satisfy her thirst for knowledge. "I created it with the help of some other magically proficient creatures. It was not pleasant. But it's not relevant to our situation. Except that all of that happened in a matter of a few months." Luna answered.
"Indeed." Celestia agreed. "We are here to help you rescue a certain Lulamoon. And you told us you had an idea which spells she had used, didn't you?" Twilight nodded and opened the old book on a specific page. The mistranslated book was written on the page. "What can you tell me about it?"
Celestia let out a short chuckle. "I shouldn't laugh but the title literally tells you what to know. None of the spells are evil, wrong, dark or anything like that. It's only dangerous because of some mistranslations and spelling errors. The spells still works, but it does something completely different. "Celestia's tone became more somber. "Which can and has ended in fatalities and worse than dead situations."
Twilight gulped. Celestia continued talking. "You suspect she used a spell from that book?" "Yes and I think it was an interdimensional travel spell. At least the thaumic energy are very similar to the mirror that leads to the human world." Luna spoke up. "That old spell book did contain some very powerful spells. Which can horrible backfire due to the spelling errors." "That's what makes it dangerous."
The three alicorns silently stared at the kitchen where Pinkie was busy rummaging through the fridge. They profited from her distraction to continue discussing their important topic. "So, do you have a way to track or find Miss Lulamoon so we can retrieve her?" Luna asked while rummaging through some of the notes.
"Yes, when I went to the place where Trixie had casted her spell, I could sense her energy. After doing some research and visiting some areas where she had gone. This allowed me to get a better grip on her presence. Which would allow me to use this spell." She pulled a copy of a spell that would create a tether between the caster and target.
"And with this spell you would be able to create a temporary rift in between the two worlds through which you could pull Trixie back into our world." Celestia concluded while holding the copy of another spell. "Correct." "However you obviously need our help to cast the second spell and keep it stable and to find the correct world." She continued. "Indeed, I brought several star charts and leyline maps to help us triangulate her location."
"We will need to find an empty area to cast the spell as the hotel probably wouldn't appreciate us casting it here. Or that." Luna pointed towards Pinkie. She had made a mess out of the kitchen preparing multiple cakes using ice cream and whipped cream.
"I already know where we can cast it." Twilight quite happily said. "Four actually." "You never change, don't you?" Celestia said while chuckling. "So we're leaving right now to prepare?" Luna asked. "Indeed."
"If you excuse me I need to say my goodbyes to the fine ponies who kept me entertained last night. If you kno..." "There's no need for us to get this man,y details." Celestia interrupted her sister. "Well were..."
Bang
The three alicorns were hit by a wave of sweet and creamy shrapnel before they could even turn to look at the origin of the sound. When they turned they saw Pinkie completely covered in cake. They also saw the remnants of a pile of cakes that had obviously blown up.
The three alicorns couldn't help but stare at the strange messy sight.
The ceiling rumbled from all of the fighting back onto the surface. That alongside all of the talking that had just started was giving me a headache. on the positive all of that noise concealed the indecipherable whispering. But I wasn't currently worried about that.
Fred was staring at me confusingly. He wasn't bothered at all by the fact that he could suddenly talk. His only answer to why he could talk was that I could talk and thus him talking isn't strange. Worst part is that I definitely used that line of logic to explain some of my actions in the past.
"Look I really don't get why this bothers you. You could talk before me, so why are you so surprised?" Fred asked, somehow more confused than me. "Do you think I don't deserve to talk?" He said with a clearly offended tone. "No, no, it's just that... aargh doesn't matter." I half-shouted in frustration.
"Let's just focus on what's important. Where are we exactly and who are the ones fighting against the creatures above?" He quickly answered without much thought. "Were in UIN territory or more precisely under it. And the ones fighting are members of th UIN. And before you ask, that stands for Union of imperialist and nationalist. I don't actually know what neither of those words meant."
I thought about something he had told me earlier. "Is this UIN related to that Ala... Alegria individual you mentioned earlier?" "Yup, she created it and told everyone to join because she had more stuff and was smarter." The ground shook as dozens of explosions could be heard above their heads. "And she might have been right." He said with a somehow hesitant expression, on his featureless face.
I turned around as another being whistling trying to get our attention. They were all departing through a tunnel as they had no intention of staying here. Which I had to agree with as cracks started appearing into the walls and ceiling. But before departing I still had two questions. "Wait first, what's your name because to be honest I have no idea how to read it and what exactly are you?"
He looked slightly offended, but did not make any snarky remarks. "My name is ジョン and were aberrations. Or that's what we use to refer to ourselves. Don't ask me where that word came from, as it was already there when I was born." I still did not understand what his name meant. Though the word aberration felt oddly... adequate.
We then departed through the tunnels. It was morbid seeing the few hundred remaining beings or aberrations when I had been told that there had been thousands in the old stadium. I hadn't even thought about that, but it was whispered to me. Now that we were going deeper underground, lessening the noise from above, and that everyone had stopped speaking as much I could now hear the whispering more clearly.
It was almost impossible to discern anything that was said. But some of it was just loud and clear enough to be understood. And it all said the same. It pointed things out. A skull in the corner, a red splotch on a wall, a dark not-so-empty room, other strange noises and other concerning details. This quickly made me wish for all of the loud noises and talking to come back.
I tried to ignore it or drown it out but it all failed. Fortunately the glow on the amulet was dimming quickly and with that the whispering also went out.
But my mind was already on the verge of panic.
As we kept going down this got worse. But then we started going up. I started calming up as all of the sounds started coming back. We then reached a ladder that led to the surface. As one of the aberrations was busy unscrewing the locked ponyhole cover, the rest sat and rested. Quite a few loudly complained about all they had lost, while some started swearing for vengeance.
Someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around and saw the nicely clothed bei... aberration (going to take me some time to get used to that) staring at me. She was holding her sickle in her remaining hand and the tinier just as nicely clothed aberration was hugging her leg clearly shaking in fear. The taller one then lightly pressed her sickle against my throat.
"What are you?!" She asked with quite a threatening tone, anger obvious in her eyes. "You appear out of nowhere and suddenly the same day we get attacked by those... those things." She pressed the sickle a bit harder. I started sweating. Both because she could definitely cut my head off in one move and because I couldn't afford to have her and all the others be... aberrations as enemies.
"I'm Trixie and I'm a pony." I said in fear as the cold bloody steel of her sickle was pressed against my fragile meaty throat. She looked slightly less angry and a bit more curious. "I definitely read about ponies in a book and maybe saw a few pictures. However they weren't blue and their eyes weren't as abnormally big. But I can see the similarities." The tinier aberration started nodding in agreement and looked slightly less scared. The taller one moved it’s hand away from my throat.
"Ok, I'll believe that. But why are you here and what about those things that attacked us?" She asked in a slightly less threatening tone. "I got pulled in here after a failed spell. I don't know about those things as they have been trying to kill me as much as you." I told her I could have mentioned Cosmo, however as he wasn't here I decided not to mention him.
She rubbed her forehead in frustration with her remaining hand. "I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, but if I discover that you lied to me..." She pointed at me, anger clear on her face. "...I will hold you personally responsible for the death of my mate, the trauma on my son and the loss of everything I held dear."
Her face then shifted into a big mouthless smile. "And I earned all of it through copious amounts of violence." She then left to wait near the ladder dragging her child with her.
I already knew that this wasn't going to end well, it never did. But that would be a problem for later.
"I've opened it!" This was shouted by the aberration that had been unscrewing the ponyhole cover. He then exited through it and the others followed. So did I. I was greeted by thick smoke and thousands of deafening noises. Fortunately there were a bunch of fortified buildings in between us and the fighting. There were also a lot of heavily armored and armed aberrations.
And quite a few were staring at me in bewilderment. One with a fancy hat shouted something causing the others to stop staring at me and continue moving.
I should also continue moving, however I had been left behind as everyone had either left to go fighting or take cover leaving me alone. I wanted to run in the opposite direction, but that would but me farther away from the rift that would supposedly allow me to go back home. A massive piece of building then fell just beside me. And then more fell around. So I jumped in a trench, to the surprise of the aberrations in it, to take cover. They were holding what I guessed were big guns.
They kept firing in one direction, killing all kinds of strange and different creatures. Creatures with long claws and big teeths that they were going to use to kill us. Fortunately we had range on our side. I looked around to see If I could sneak around.
Before I could do anything something grabbed me by the neck with huge claws. I tried to shake myself loose, but it's grip was very strong. I panicked even more, thinking about how the creature could have snuck behind us. I then noticed that the thing holding had pitch black fingers. I was then turned around by the one holding me. I stared into its face covered with a strange mask. The aberration stared back at me tilting its head slightly.
I tried to move around or get out of it's grasp. But the only thing that I succeed in doing is getting a better view. It had no legs, having a long snake tail instead. It was much bigger than all of the other aberrations I had seen, hands bigger than my head. It was wearing a uniform and covered in pouches.
"Huh?" It grunted with a muffled voice before lifting it's other hand. It then swung it's hand towards my face.
And then everything went black.
My nose felt wet as my consciousness slowly came back. I tried to move my hooves, but I couldn't. I felt a tight and uncomfortable rope tying my hooves to a wooden surface. The armor I had been wearing had been taken off. The sense of security that it gave me was gone.
"Sh... wa... So wh...? The..." I could hear someone speaking, but my current state made it hard to understand anything. "He... and ... kn...." "Do... unch it s... ard ne... time." The speaking slowly became clearer. I managed to partially open an eye.
"It's looking at me." "It's an unicorn." "Does it matter?" "If anything written in the books is real and accurate then yes." Another voice interrupted the discussion. "Shut up, that unicorn thing is awake and we've got a job to do." It sounded male and quite soft even with a harsher tone. My other eye was then forcefully opened.
I saw an aberration wearing strange glasses with eight lenses. Behind it were two other aberrations. What was odd was the fact that they were both wearing clean identical uniforms alongside slightly different helmets. They were also wearing very similar pouches and the same weapons. After seeing all other aberrations wearing completely different and teared clothes this felt pretty strange. I could see more standing by walls and doors wearing similar uniforms and a wide variety of weapons. The uniform seemed to change a bit depending on the weapon they carried.
The one who had grabbed and punched me was sitting by a table, busy reading a book.
"Alright, I've got a few questions for you. If you answer them truthfully everything will go well. If not, then someone less kind will ask questions. Understood?" I nodded hesitantly. "Good. Can you speak? If yes then answer by speaking."
"Yes." I answered, terrified. My snout hurt, it might have been broken. "Okay, please explain who and what you are." He was holding a notepad and a pen. "I'm Trixie Lulamoon an unicorn." I felt an awful itch on my hooves. But I couldn't scratch it with my hooves tied down. "And where do you come from?" He was writing down everything I said.
While it had a very smooth and nice sounding voice, the stern tone behind it left no doubt that bad things would happen if I didn't answer. "I'm from Equestria." He noted that down and did not ask anything else about Equestria. "Why did you come here and did you come alone?"
"I came here by accident after a failed spell. And I was alone."
"Did you at any moment meet a strange sentient, possible eldritch, ethereal being?" My eyes widened. Why would he even ask that? How could any of them even know about Cosmo? Before I could say anything the aberration interrogating me spoke again. "Actually, no need to answer that one. It's not important." Then why even ask it? I mentaly shouted.
"Last question, do you know what that light in the horizon is?" "Not much, it's called a rift. But that might not even be the actual name. I know barely anything about it." I tried to answer as truthfully as possible without saying too much.
"Thank you for your cooperation Miss Lulamoon. I'm sorry for the harsh treatment, but this was necessary." The ropes holding me down were then cut off. "Now someone wants to meet you." I was grabbed by the neck again. A door in the room was opened. "It's best to not make her wait."
I was then dragged out of the room by the same aberration that had knocked me unconscious. Now dragging me through a well lit hallway filled with piles of armor, weapons and boxes.
We then stopped in front of a thick wood door with multiple strange skulls nailed around it. There were also multiple guards standing besides the door.
I had a bad feeling about it.
"Hello blue pony." And Cosmo then appeared beside me.
"If you're not going to say anything, then you don't need a tongue."
"Cos..." He quickly put one of his clawed fingers in front of my mouth, shutting me up. The aberration dragging me through the hallway stared at me in confusion. "You said something?" He asked with a deep voice. "No." I weakly answered. He grunted before continuing to wait for the door to be opened. The way the guards failed to open the door and kept dropping the key was slightly comical. However this could be blamed on the shaking caused by explosions.
"He can't see or hear me. I'm just here to watch what happens." He said non-chanantly. "Oh, and also help you if your life ends up in danger or something like that." He said without a care in the world. I glared daggers at him, but he simply ignored it. "Also, you might want to know that all of the fighting is happening around a kilometer away from here." The ground shook again. "Or maybe they're closer than that."
This would have scared me, except I already had reached my daily limit of how scared I could get. The door then opened. To the relief of the two guards. Somehow one had managed to break one of its fingers, somehow.
I was then dragged inside the room. I could hear shouting coming from the room. "Steiner will handle it. I don't care about that. I care even less about your fish." The aberration inside then repeatedly slammed her hand on a desk. "Oh..." The aberration sitting at the desk saw me and gave me a curious glare. "...what, no it's not fish and I don't care about your maps. Shut up, tell Steiner to do what I told you to tell him and don't forget to tell Fegelein that he sucks. NOW!"
The aberration was shouted in some strange banana shaped object with a wire that connected it to a strange box. It then slammed the object in her hand on the other object. It then rubbed temples in frustration before standing up. It looked and sounded feminine. It's head was very serpent like with two goat horns on top of it and five eyes. It was also bipedal and had a tail. However most of that tail was missing and from how thick the remaining piece was I could assume that It probably had been a very long tail.
"Well, what a strange sight." It got closer to me. I tried to get away, but all my efforts were useless because of the aberration holding me by the neck. "Please, could you hold her by the head, I'm trying to get a good look." I felt a big hand clamp on the back of my head. The one on my neck then let loose.
The clearly female aberration, at least that I could guess, stared intently at my neck. Or more precisely what was around my neck. She then grabbed the amulet but did not pull it off. "I am confused, should I bury it or should I destroy it." This... caught me off guard. She lifted one of her non-existent brows, clearly noticing my own confusion. "But still, seeing something like you with that thing is surprising. And I'm confused if I'm supposed to be happy or angry"
She let go of the amulet. "Do you know what that is?" I nodded. Her face contorted in annoyance at my answer. "I should make this clearly now when I ask you something you answer clearly, quickly, in detail and verbally." She then quickly added. "That last one is quite ironic due to... recent events."
"So do you know what that is?" "It's the alicorn amulet." I answered. "Strange name. But everything about it is strange." She stared at me like I was supposed to answer. "I guess?" I answer half-heartedly. And now she stared at me in confusion.
"You do know that there's something powerful, alive and ancient stuck inside it and that if you were to break it, then that thing will be unleashed upon all of us?" My mouth fell open. "What?!" How would I have known that? How would she have known that? It's an amulet, Why would there be something living in it?
But that might explain the whispering I could hear.
"But you knew there was something powerful about it?" She asked dumbfounded. "Yes." I answered hesitantly. "What else did you know about it?!" She was speaking louder and her tone was becoming more hostile. "Yes." I answered, fear creeping up once again. "What else did you know about the amulet?" She actually looked like she might have a mental breakdown. "I knew that it was a magical artifact that would grant me power equal to an alicorn." She stayed silent for a few seconds. "I don't know what an a-corn is, but I'm assuming that that did not happen? You can answer by nodding for this specific question."
I nodded. "So you knew nothing about it." She added in an accusatory tone.
"But you had the utterly MORONIC idea to put it on?" She shouted with her face contorted in anger. She then let out dozens of foul expletives. This slowly turned into laughter. Very loud and maniacal laughter. "I thought you actually knew something." She kept on laughing. "You could have been useful and I could have killed you without any remorse." Her rambunctious laughter slowly turned into a malicious chuckle.
"But instead you're just useless." A maniacal smile appeared on her face. The aberration holding me by the back of my head also started chuckling. "Though I still have a few questions for you. Mainly how did you get here?" Cosmo had given me a lackluster explanation of how I had gotten here. I knew that she would not like such an explanation.
She clearly saw what I was thinking from the look on my face. "You don't know you got here. Do you even have a working brain?" I gulped, tears slowly appearing. She ripped the amulet off. "You're useless..." She flicked a finger at my horn. "...Except that those ears of yours are quite adorable." She then started rubbing my ear. "It's so soft, maybe I should keep you alive and let people pet you as a reward." I had to admit that her hand felt pretty nice on my ears.
Wait, she flicked my horn?! My horn still worked, there was nothing stopping me from using my magic. I had to physically facehoof myself to the surprise of both aberrations in the room. "Did she just... facepalm hersel?" The bigger aberration, who was now hunched over me above my horn, asked. "Yes and it was adorable." Alegria cooed. "How can something this adorable be so problematic."
I fired a concussion spell directly in her face. The big crack that could be heard made it obvious that part of it had broken. I could feel the hand of the bigger aberration tightening around my head. I quickly fired multiple spells up towards it's hunched over head. At least two of them hit it in the jaw. Another crack made it obvious that more bones had been broken. Both aberrations were now clutching their broken bones and moaning in pain. I grabbed the amulet that had been dropped on the ground.
The door the slammed open. Half-a-dozen guards stood there, staring befuddled at the strange sight. They then pointed their guns, which were becoming easier for me to recognise, at me. Cosmo then appeared behind them and slapped them all in the back of the head. Which distracted them long enough for me to run by them.
"KILL THAT BITCH!!" The female aberration screamed in utter rage. "Hi." Cosmo said as I ran by him. He was then shot in the face as the guards came back to their senses. "Ow."
More guards and soldiers came in the hallway entering through all kinds of doors. All looked at me with hate in their eyes, all about to try and kill me. One then fired some deadly firework towards me. Cosmo then does what he always does by appearing from nowhere without warning.
The rocket then bounced off his ethereal face and blew a hole in the ceiling. Cosmo's superior size proved very useful as he instantly became the bigger target. I felt no shame in using him as a shield. "That's what it means. outch." All attacks simply bounced off his skin. Except when some aberration around a corner swung a club directly into his face. Which made him wince and caused some dark ethereal liquid to pour out of where his nostrils should have been if he had any.
The aberration responsible for that had no time to celebrate as he was kicked through a door. We reached the stairs and went down one floor.Three dozen soldiers were waiting for us down there, with big guns aim at the stairs.
Thinking quickly I blasted a window and jumped through it. Cosmo did not. The aberrations then started firing their big guns. "Ow."
I landed in a courtyard outside of the building, fortunately it was a fairly short jump. The first thing I did was put the amulet back on before noticing that there was a big metal thing with wheels in the middle of the courtyard. There was a big metal turret on top of the big metal box. Said turret then turned towards it and aimed a big cylinder towards me. I leaned to the left. The metal box made a very loud noise and something flew out of the cylinder. It flew by me, missing by a hair, before blowing a hole in a wall behind me.
Cosmo appeared beside me, snapped one of his fingers which caused the metal box to be turned around and my armor to appear back on me. He then winked at me. "I wish you goo... Atchoo." He sneezed and because his snout was bleeding, some of the blood was sneezed on me. He whimpered in pain before disappearing again.
The metal box was slowly turning around. Dozens upon dozens of soldiers were slowly flooding the courtyard. Also three other metal boxes were slowly entering the area alongside seven tinier metal boxes and two much bigger boxes. All of which had big cylinders on their metal turrets.
I then got shot in the head, but the projectile bounced harmlessly off my helmet.
And I just now noticed that some of Cosmo's blood had fallen on the amulet. At the same time it started glowing again, slowly becoming brighter.
"If shooting it doesn't work, then just headbutt it."
So there I stood, in front of multiple steel murder machines, that move through I don't know what kind of magic, trying to kill me. And also some six or seven dozen aberrations pointing their weapons at me. Also while my armor was back, my mace wasn't.
I did have Cosmo's blood, which he had disgustingly sneezed on me, stuck on my fur and the amulet.
I then ran to the left where an exit from the courtyard was situated. All the aberrations and their machines started firing instantly. What they didn't know was that they were shooting at an illusion. It had saved my life once already, so why not use it again. Using a copy of myself and using another ilusion to hide myself from them while running to the other side.
What I hadn't taken into account, or couldn't have really known, is that those big metal things fired much bigger projectiles. Said projectile did not hit me, but it hit the Illusions near me. Which caused a big explosion, left a big hole in the ground and threw me in the air. Which also caused me to drop the illusion.
They all noticed it and turned their weapons towards me. Using some levitation I managed to push myself out of the way as they started firing. I could feel some of the tinier projectiles bounce off my armor. Motivated by fear and using some more levitation I managed to jump over a fence out of the courtyard leaving all of the aberration behind. Their confusion didn't last long as all of the moving metal boxes rod through the fence, crushing it underneath their steel wheels.
Those things were surprisingly fast as they quickly catched up to me. I started running faster and jumped over a pile of barrels. They simply smashed through it, sending splinters flying everywhere. Some of which tore into my flesh. I tried to shoot a spell at the metal machines following me, but it simply bounced off it.
I tried to find smaller streets through which they wouldn't be able to follow me, but I found none. At one point I crossed paths with multiple creatures. I jumped over them, confusing them. They failed to notice the metal boxes with wheels heading towards them in time. I didn't see it, but the very loud crunch and a few screeches of pain told me enough.
I found a big stone staircase and quickly went up. The metal boxes reached the bottom of the stairs and started firing at me. Out of sheer luck all of their shots. The one in front then started riding up the stairs. The inclination of the stairs slowed it down by a lot. I might lose them like that.
This hope was quickly dashed as once I reached the top I saw another one of those machines standing there. It wasn't as wide as the ones that had been following me. It also lacked the big turret that the others had. And to my fortune, it and a whole bunch of aberrations were too occupied with fighting the creatures that were pouring through the streets. I used this opportunity to leave unnoticed.
I quickly entered a building with it's door smashed open. Had I not been in such a hurry, then I might have noticed the massive amount of sounds coming out of it.
I was trapped inside when the entrance was set on fire. An aberration was carrying a gun that fired large flames, setting a dozen creatures on fire. They noticed me and turned their weapon towards me. I quickly dashed up the stairs before They could use their weapon.
It was actually worse up there. A bunch of aberrations and creatures were tearing into each other using knives and claws. An aberration face was half torn off after a claw swipe, another aberration was using it's long and thick tail to strangle another creatures. I felt sick seeing blood, guts and limbs lying around.
I picked at the smell. One of the creatures leapt at me while I was busy puking. It's claws broke as it hit my helmet. It simply stared at it's now broken claws in disbelief. I suckerhooved it, before heading towards the nearest window. An aberration was busy throwing explosives through it. So I went for the second nearest window. A dead body lay there, so I went for the third nearest window.
This one was simply closed. I opened it and looked through it and saw a big bush beneath it. This would soften my fall. I jumped out the window. I landed on top of it with a loud and painful thud. Then there was a loud bang and the entire bush shook violently. The entire thing then started rumbling. It also felt very cold for a bush.
Also it was now moving, which bushes did not do. Normally.
I stared at my hooves and felt around. The branches and leaves simply fell of as I moved my hooves around. This wasn't a bush. It actually was one of those metal boxes covered in leaves and branches. I had to admit it's camouflage was very well done. And I was an expert at camouflaging and disguising myself, due to how often it was necessary for me to do it.
It was then hit by a massive bolt of magic which melted most of the front of. I was thrown off, with multiple burns on my fur. More creatures then poured into the streets. Half of them then blew up as aberrations hidden into buildings then started firing out of the windows onto the streets.
I used the remains of the half melted vehicle as the fighting escalated once again. I tried to flee but my way was blocked by multiple bolts of magic and acidic spit. So I went back to cover. An aberration then joined me behind cover. "Wait..." They said. "You're that blue thing that we're supposed to shoot on sight." He then started rubbing my remaining ear. "It really is soft." They cooed in delight.
I aimed for their stomach and fired a small stun spell. However they noticed that and tried to dodge. This caused my spell to hit them in between the legs. They groaned in pain, closed their four legs and put their hands in between them. Tears could be seen streaming out of it's eyes and down it's face. "UUuunghg, y-you don't h-hit a man there." They then crumbled onto the grumb whimpering in pain.
I had been hit in between my legs many times and I've never reacted like that. But maybe the difference in our anatomy and biology would explain why they reacted like such a cry-baby after having been hit with such a weak spell.
Ignoring the very easy to defeat aberration laying beside me, I focused on trying to get out of this exposed position. More and more creatures poured into the street slowly pushing the aberrations back. I needed to create a big distraction for me to flee. I thought about it and one thing came to mind.
Suddenly a Pick pony appeared in the middle of the road. everyone stopped fighting to stare at the singing pony. "Smile, smile, smileee..." I used this distraction to sneak in an small side street. The pink pony disappeared as she was bombarded by projectiles and magic.
Rinse and repeat.
Every building I entered.
Every street I crossed.
Every park I passed by.
All were filled with brutal fighting. There was nowhere to hide. Both the aberrations and creatures tried to kill me on sight. Buildings were falling apart and crumbling on themselves. The thick smell of blood and smoke made me feel sicker by the second.
I saw one of the big metal vehicles fly through the air, a tank I think I heard an aberration call it, and land inside a five story building. The aberrations fired a rocket back, blowing up a few dozen creatures.
I simply sat there, hidden behind a pile of rubble, crying.
"Why do you look so sad? Well better than being bored I guess." And there he was. Cosmo was back again, but I was too busy crying to be angry at him.
"Hey..." He said. "You crying is boring to me." This caused me to stop crying and glare at him in anger. "I've got your attention. Good. Like I've told you that I'm bored. Because of that I've decided to give you a detailed explanation on how you got here."
That got me to stop glaring at him. An actual cohesive explanation? "An actual cohesive explanation?" I said and thought at the same time. "Yes. Exposition would be an accurate description of what I'm going to do."
I knew this wasn't going to end well. But I was going to listen.
"How to shoot yourself in the foot, step 1: have a foot."
"First I'll explain a few things then you can ask questions. Until I get too bored. Understood?" I nodded in confirmation at Cosmo’s question.
"Alright, do you know how summoning spells work?" Cosmo asked. "No, I do know more about creating golems." I answered honestly. If I had properly translated the spell then I would have made some research about summonings. Or simply searched for another spell and wouldn't be in this situation.
"I'm simplifying it, but basically it's a teleportation spell. It teleports the summoned being by teleporting it to you, which isn't a problem if they are in the same... hmmm, realm, universe, world or whatever." He said the second part quite dismissively. "How do I put it." He stood there thinking for a minute or two.
"There are an unknown amount of, let's just say worlds. Your home and my home are two different worlds which are not physically connected to each other. You can however open rifts which would allow you to enter a place in between worlds. Some kind of three dimensional plane as you can travel in all directions. Some worlds know about it and give it names. Like the in-between, the upside-down, the nowhere, the void and other such silly titles."
"This three dimensional plane can be used to travel from world to world. What happened is that when you used the spell, you opened one rift in your world and one in my world. However due to a miscast, and some other stuff that I'll explain later, we were both pulled through the rifts meeting in the middle. The middle being this place."
I wanted to speak but he stopped me by lifting his clawed hand up. "The three dimensional plane in between worlds. You can travel in every single direction. You can swim up, fly down, walk north or run west. Explaining how it works would take years and when I say that I'm simplifying it that's an understatement. And in that plane you can find anchors, Waste Piles and other such things. Those names were given by the many people, adventurers and societies that commonly use it."
"Also we are currently on a waste pile and you see the stars up there?" He pointed at the sky. I could see a few stars in the sky. It felt like an unnaturally low amount of stars compared to the Equestrian sky. "Those aren't stars but the location of worlds and a potential entry point to those worlds."
"One final thing before you can ask questions. Those creatures that attacked you are void jumpers. They jump between worlds to acquire food. But they can't travel on their own, they need someone else to travel so that they can follow them and open a rift in their world. Or do specific things that weaken the barrier of that world. So theoretically when you used that spell it allowed them to follow you, or maybe me to this place."
"Now you can ask questions." He said nonchalantly. I took a few minutes to think of what to ask. "What's a waste pile?" It seemed like a good place to start. "So there's tiny holes in all worlds, not literally but it helps me explain it, through which ideas, concepts and sometimes items escape into this three-dimensional plane. Over time all of this ideas and concepts gather in a tiny corner and slowly take a physical appearance."
He waved at the buildings around us. "This causes a proto-planet to appear. All of those concepts and ideas then smash together and create strange cities, biomes and ruins to appear out of nowhere. This also creates living beings. Both animals and sentient beings. Said beings are a mish-mash of all kinds of living beings from dozens, hundreds or even thousands of worlds. In this case creating the aberrations on this waste pile."
"Also this world has clearly reached its end times." He quickly added in a nonchalant manner.
Obviously he had said that on purpose to get my attention and force me to ask more about that. And from the look on his face he clearly knew that I was thinking that. "I'll take the bait, what do you mean with the end times?" I asked reluctantly. He eagerly answered. "The waste piles, alongside the scrappiles and the conglomerations, have a very short lifespan existing from a few hundred thousand years to a few million years at most."
"Because of how they're made they have a very low resistance to outside elements. When they age and become bigger, they also become easier to detect and more attractive to outside influences. Said influences then come here, try to take as much as they can and then leave. All of the death and destruction attract eldritch, apocalyptic, world-ending, abominations which then finish off what's left over and deal massive amounts of damage to the core of said waste- or scrap pile."
I gulped. He had said that without a care in the world. Also the fact that we might be in the middle of said end-times was worrying. He just kept talking. "The proto-planet is so weakened that it collapses on itself and for a few microseconds turns into a blackhole and then implodes. That implosion then creates a new world and voila, you have a big bang."
I had heard about the big bang in school and this basically confirmed that it was real. I stood there thinking about what he had said. So this place was doomed. "Is there anything we can do to prev..." He interrupted me. "There is literally nothing that you can do to prevent this. Also, this is actually natural. This place has to die so a new world can be born. Give a new opportunity for billions of years of evolution. Any other question?"
I didn't like this, but it was better to focus on getting back home. But curiosity got the better of me. "What are scrap piles and conglomerates?" "Scrap Piles are the same waste pile but without any life, not even plants. Conglomerates are just much, much bigger and actively attract concepts and ideas towards themselves. This causes them to grow and die much quicker, rarely reaching half-a-million of years of age. To my knowledge."
"How do you know that?" I asked. The answer became obvious when I remembered how old he was. From the look on his face he knew that I knew that and thus did not answer that question. "Alright, what are you?" I both wanted and did not want to know the answer to that.
"How do I put it..." Cosmo was actually going to answer that, to my surprise. This made me nervous. "Ok, my own world was born in the same ways as yours. Some separate waste-, scrap piles and conglomeration died at one point creating our worlds. Mine was imperfect."
"How?" I subconsciously blurted that out. "I am repeating myself, but I am simplifying this and that is a big understatement. I'm going to use a comparison to explain that one. Let's say you're producing waterproof jackets, but one of them has a hole in them through which water comes in. And that water is pure energy. My world had a massive leak at its creation which allowed an unbelievable amount of energy which then allowed my kind to be created."
"And What you see here..." He pointed at himself, two pairs of arms appeared and then quickly disappeared. "...is not my real body. My real body is unbelievably big. My body is a source of gravity. There are actual celestial bodies going around my real body. This actually makes the whole being summoned more annoying." He gave me a few seconds to let that sink in. "If my real body was here, you would be very dead."
"Like, there is no way to actually describe my size. The number is actually mind blowing. When I met other living species, I could not believe how tiny they were. And that's all because of a leak in the barriers of my world."
"This also affects us mentally, meaning that the first millions years of my species are very murky. This led to my species not having a name. We never gave usself a name. You call yourself a pony, I have nothing to call myself. Even my name Cosmo wasn't given to me by my life givers, it was just some dude that saw me and decided to call me Cosmo. And I found that entertaining."
"Wow." I mumbled. "So, you don't actually don't know what you are?" This caused Cosmo to stop to think for a few seconds. "That is surprisingly accurate. Because of the ways worlds are created, means that there are many similarities between worlds. But I have never, in my very long life, seen anything even remotely similar to my kind"
I found this to be slightly sad. This might also explain how he behaved. "Yo..."
"I'm bored. I've already answered a whole bunch of your questions and this is quite boring. So now why don't you try getting back home, because it's only a matter of time before this world blows up. Which is only a matter of time." He interrupted me with a featureless smile on his featureless face.
Celestia-damnit any time he becomes relatable, or even nice, he then proceeds to completely switch his behavior in the most unpleasant way.
"HEY!" I heard someone shout. I turned my head towards the sound. Multiple aberrations were exiting a building opposite of my location and had seen me. I turned towards Cosmo. For some reason.
He was gone. Again.
I genuinely was not surprised by that.
"Oh, it's you. I should have guessed by the description." One of the aberrations said. It had six spindly legs and a pony-like head. Fred! I almost had not recognised him. Mainly due to his featureless face and that all of them had the same color palet. The fact that he was now wearing a grayish uniform like all the other aberrations made it even harder.
"What are you doing here? And why are you wearing those clothes?" I asked, trying to get attention away from me. "I joined the UIN because the stadium is gone and they're fighting against those things. And because I joined them, I have to obey their orders." The other aberrations stared at him.
"Not that I'm ungrateful, cause you were going to help me but then you got interrupted before you could do that speech thing, but I have orders to kill or possibly capture you. And in the case of capture I'd be allowed to pet you fluffy ears. Or the one that remains." I did not appreciate the reminder to my ear that it had been ripped off. "Maybe you could say you did not see me and let me go?" I asked with a shit-eating grin on my face.
He shrugged, the others just stared at me angrily. "I would like to, but they wouldn't allow it." He pointed at the two dozen aberrations alongside it. "Yes." "Indeed." "Définitely." "Without a doubt." They all said in confirmation. And then they pointed all of their guns at my me. "Sorry." Fred sheepishly shrugged.
"Also I'm actually really curious about how fluffy that ear of yours actually is. No hard feelings?" He tried to get closer in a non-threatening way. My mind raced trying to find a way out of this situation. But like a bad joke, things just got worse.
Fred blew up. Out of nowhere. From the inside. I and the aberrations closest to him all ended up covered in blood and viscera. Hihihihihi Some of the aberrations ran away in panic due to the very sudden and unexpected explosion. The others stared in utter confusion at me and the spot where Fred used to be. Dead and gone
"Magic is really dangerous." And unexpected An abeartions said, before they all tried to shoot me. However all the blood and viscera covering me were powering the amulet by a lot. The light it now produced was almost blinding. This made it hard for them to aim at me. It also made it hard for me to see.
So after trying to puke again because of the heavy smell and taste of blood in my nose and mouth and failing ,because I hadn't eaten in a while and already puked multiple times, I ran away from the aberrations. Killkillkill It was extremely hard not to trip over something as I had to squint my eyes due to the blinding light. On your left
I don't know why but I moved to the right. I could feel something clipping against my left legs. I had no idea what it was but I had a feeling that hitting it would be unpleasant. I then tripped over an aberration. I landed snout first against its face. I saw it was wearing dark glasses and had an equine-like head. Without thinking I ripped the glasses off and put them on. This immediately helped, as it dulled the light a bit and helped me see in front of me.
I quickly looked around. Therreeeee I saw the rift, what might be a way home. I was covered in blood and guts and being hunted. dangerously high bpm My heart was trying to climb up my throat, my breathing was heavy, my body felt unnaturally cold and tears were flowing down my face. I could feel myself becoming paller by the second. I could feel pieces of flesh, that were definitely not mine, inside my mouth.
"I've found my highlighter.And there's bite marks on them."
Left, right, left, back, up I dodged to the left then to the right before going back left and backtracking to dodge a thrown cart. I then jumped over an overturned vehicle. I didn't even notice any of that as I was too focused on the rift. I could see it, so I simply ran towards it in a straight line. The big light cutting through the horizon, the only possible way back to Equestria. I did not care about what happened here as I could do nothing about it.
But that's just a theory I felt a sudden urge to kick someone for some reason.
A sudden boost of adrenaline, probably from the amulet, caused me to go faster. Most creatures, or void jumpers if that's actually their name, (a stupid one if i might add) and aberations that I came across were too busy fighting with each other to attack me.
An aberration on some kind of big mounted gun, turned its weapon towards me and fired. I grabbed a big broken piece of stone and used it as a shield. Bangbangbang I threw the rock away, once I was out of range. It landed on top of another mounted weapon, this one had been abandoned so no one was hurt.
I had tried to move through dark and narrow alleys, but the glowing amulet made me obvious to anyone in the vicinity. I was tempted to throw it away, but it's magic was the only reason why I could still move and wasn't in a state of constant and horrendous pain. And the glasses I had ripped of an aberrations face were helping make the light less intense for my eyes.
Smells like iron I was still covered in so much blood that anyone looking at me from a distance would think that that was my actual fur and mane cover. There had been a fountain on my path earlier, but the corpses and body parts floating in it had tainted it with blood. So I did not jump into it to try and clean myself.Aaw
I entered a larger crossroad. On one side lay the aberrations with their big guns and metal vehicles. And on the others lay the void jumpers causing strange magic and spitting acidic spit. A quite common sight The entire city was like that. I had passed by dozens of situations like that. I did not want to waste any time or risk my life so I just created a very big and distracting illusion.
It was quite phallic in shape.Sexy While they were all busy staring or covering their eyes I simply ran through. Once I ran through the Illusion stopped and they all started fighting again.
I encountered some of those big cyclops creatures. Having a massive eye and then staring at a blinding light was not a good idea. Still better for me. I still remember how the eye of that first one popped. Eeew I shuddered at the thought, but did not let it stop me.
My road, which was straight, was then blocked by a building. I could go through them, however seeing that most buildings were on fire and those that weren't were filled with fighting, I decided to go around.
There might have been some calls for help or some wounded people laying around that I could have helped. unwise But that would have been stupid and put me at risk. wise Especially since literally everyone was trying to kill me.
So I kept running.
A few things blew up on my right, something screamed on my right. I ducked under a bridge and jumped over a river. I might have kicked something in the face, but I was too busy running to care. I accidentally swallowed some blood, but my stomach was too empty to care. A building crumbled on itself, but I wasn't inside it so it did not bother me.
And I kept running.
As the noises of battles diminished.
As all light, except for my amulet, disappeared due to all lamps and lamp post having been destroyed.
As I crossed no-maresland.
As I passed by the massive legs of creatures of an unbelievable scale.
As the only aberrations that I saw were either dead or fighting in surrounded pockets.
And I might have passed by a familiar figure. "HA, I'ms back!" Shouted a big void jumper, with a broken tail and a lot of bruises. On top of her lay another tinier creature with almost as many wounds. Both were soaked. "Ysou defeatd mee and I reshpect tat. But nows I, Jossefina, schallensge you to a rematcch. Sso prepar f..." I threw a smoke bomb at her. Weeeeh
Well actually not, as I did not have any actual smoke bombs on me. So I just used a smoke creating spell. While both void jumpers were blinded, I ran past them. I heard someone shout "Bitcchs!" as I simply kept on running. I got curious and picked my saddlebags, that had somehow not been shredded to pieces, with levitation and opened it to see if I had any smoke bombs on me.
I found three alongside a teargas canister. All you need to know is that it's how I got banned from Las Pegasus and It was a birthday present. Thanks dad. Seems like a nice guy I could never stay angry at him. Especially when he gets me those special Lulamoon fireworks. Of which I pulled one out of my bag.
I then put it all back in the bag before closing it and reattaching it to my side. I then stopped and took shelter in a broken house. I closed the door. Thinking about my father and my third worst birthday had somehow calmed me. Which was ironic as it usually made me the opposite of calm. Especially when it involves the Lulamoon fireworks of dubious quality.
I took a few seconds to breathe. But it didn't help. I wasn't tired even after all that non stop running, dodging, getting tied up, getting shot at and being on the receiving end of blunt force. And I knew what was responsible for that. The amulet. Staring at it was painful even with the dark tinted glasses. However something that I could see, or more precisely feel as I put a hoof on it. first it wasn't covered in we blood like me and secondly I could feel blood pouring out of the amulets eye.
And unfortunately it was the only reason why I wasn't dead or a coma caused by exhaustion. Guilty as charged So I silently moved through the dark house towards the shower. All lights both inside and outside had stopped working due to the destruction. Well the amulet made it easy to see for me. And impossible to sneak
Indeed I muttered to myself. I entered the bathroom. I was greeted by a destroyed shower and a filled bathtub with one hedgehog like void creature in it. We both mutually and silently agreed to not mention it. I feel really bad that I could not wash the blood off me. Knowing my luck however, I would have fallen unconscious the second I washed the blood off as the amulet stopped working.
I think. I wasn't going to take any risks. So instead I went to the kitchen and started chewing on whatever bread and fruits were available, alongside a bottle of water. I used another bottle to wash my mouth, so I wouldn't actually swallow any blood. After filling my stomach, I simply ran out of the house. Or tried to.
As I reached the very damaged back of the house, the ground simply crumbled under my hooves. I then fell down an unnatural and very long slope.Weeeeh I tried to get off, but it was extremely smooth and clearly greased. Or oily, whatever is more accurate.
This went on for multiple minutes. I could barely take in the shocked faces of all the void jumpers and a few aberrations that saw me glide by. "HAHA, sherves ysou well" I heard Joseffina laugh. Or at least I think that was her as I did not get a good view.
I was then thrown of the unnatural slide. I painfully landed on my rump. pain didn't bother me both because of the amulet and that the rift was there. A hundred meter away at most. With nothing in between me and it.
Nothing except for Cosmo.
"Enjoyed the ride? I thought I could help you by making your way here faster." He said in his nonchalant and androgynous voice. "You made that?!" I asked with anger clear in my voice. "And why do you keep disappearing and why does no one else notice you?!" He was about to answer, when I turned the tables around and interrupted him. "And you answer my questions before disappearing?! Why?!"
"I'm clearly an hallucination created by your mind as you're currently in a coma due to a failed spell." He blurted out like it was nothing. "I don't believe you." Any restraint I might have had was gone. It was a miracle that i hadn't had a mental breakdown. He simply smirked. "I thought it was funny. Also I think red really fits yo-"
"WILL YOU SHUT UP!!!" I screamed from the top of my lungs. "WHY?! Why do you do this?!" Tears started pouring down my face. "Trixie has had it with your nonsense! Trixie does not find this amusing!" He kept smiling but I was too busy screaming to notice. "You keep disappearing at the worse moments and reappearing to give Trixie enough help for Trixie to keep continuing and suffering!"
"Trixie's way home is there!" Trixie pointed at the rift. "Trixie tried to be kind and not give you any orders!" A combination of pain, anger, trauma and probably dark magic were messing with Trixie's mind. "I ORDER you to help me get to that rift and back home!!"
"I lied."
Those simple words snapped Trixie out of my blinding anger. He tilted his head. The smile on his face had changed, it wasn't nonchalant or mischievous as before. Now there was clear anger and malevolence behind that smile. "W-what do you mean!?" I half-shouted. I felt an awful feeling of dread.
"You know when I said that I was unbelievably big and powerful..." A tiny line appeared on his featureless smile, like if it was being cut like paper. "That was an understatement." The pupils in his eyes turned into bright orange lights, like fire and two other eyes opened. "Did you really think..." The line that had appeared on his face then slowly split open, revealing pitch black teeths. "...that you ever had any control over me?"
He stood there with a cruel smile on his face, showing his big cruel teeth that stood out compared to his blueish ethereal body. His five eyes stared at Trixie with hateful bright fiery red pupils. Two extra pairs of arms appeared and two pairs of large horns quickly grew on his head.
Trixie wanted to cry. Trixie wanted to hide. I did neither. Cosmo simply stood there smiling and saying nothing. He gave Trixie time to think, because he wanted to see how Trixie would react. And I noticed that. And He noticed that I noticed. His smile became more joyful. He was enjoying this.
Any fear that trixie had then disappeared. Trixie only wanted to smash those ugly teeth in for all of the torment that he had inflicted on Trixie. I wanted to smash them in because he stood in my way.
"Rules are made to be broken, especially those of the universe."
"Pinkie!" Twilight shouted as the pink pony was doing... something. "I need to ward this room against evil cake-destroying evil." Pinkie answered with a straight face. Twilight, Starlight, Joe Bagel, Celestia and Luna all facehooved. Not because of the answer, but because they actually bothered asking.
Twilight tried to ignore her and continue drawing actual working wards. Luna was busy making a tether while Celestia was trying to find Trixie's location. Starlight was enchanting some scissors. Oddly enough cutting a hole into the fabric of reality is quite literal. But you need sturdy scissors to do that, very sturdy ones.
She took a quick look at the pile of half-melted scissors laying on her left. She quickly focused again on the wards. While she was doing that, she couldn't help but think about the incompetence of the law enforcements.
Twilight had gone to a little town where Trixie had allegedly set a house on fire, no casualties fortunately. she was not happy when she instantly stepped on proof of her innocence, the second she came out of the train. Instantly! She personally arrested the actual culprit, fired the sheriff and a deputy, after a very, VERY angry scolding, before promoting the other deputy to the role of sheriff.
The only reason why she did not fire that deputy was because he had been on vacation and out of town at the time. This happened too many times for her liking. She counted. 148 Ponies fired for incompetence and 23 criminals personnal arrested by Twilight. And that's only from the towns and cities that she had visited.
This angered her. She used said anger as a motivation to bring Trixie safely back home.
She also thought back on how horrible her friends had behaved when they first met Trixie. She was a showpony, it's her job to brag and entertain ponies. And then Snips and Snails woke an Ursa Minor and Trixie got the blame for it. Snips and Snails had gotten a very minor punishment. Twilight felt ashamed that she hadn't done anything to help.
"Finished!" Starlight joyfully shouted. She held the glowing scissors up. She then stabbed into a thick block of metal that had been used for enchanting some wards. The scissor slid into the metal like it had been butter. She then tried to pull it out. It had gotten stuck.
"Oops?" Starlight sheepishly mumbled. She then proceeded to fruitlessly try and pull it out. Twilight sighed, while both Luna and Celestia giggled. "With your back, pull with your back..." Pinkie unhelpfully advised. Bagel then started pulling alongside Starlight. The scissor did not budge at all.
"I'm also ready, however I will try not to get it stuck." Luna quipped. Starlight glared at her, but was too busy pulling the scissor to quip anything back. "The only one that isn't ready is my dear sister." Luna had a massive grin on her face. Celestia rolled her eyes. "Finding anything through the never ending void that is the universe is not an easy task. Or would you like to try? I still remember what happened the last time you tried."
Luna blushed. "You better not tell! you promised that you would never speak of this." Celestia shuckled. Pinkie then popped up speaking in her usual pinkie voice "Didyoutryandopenadoortoyourfavoritefairytalebecauseofhowthemultive..." Luna shoved a hoof in Pinkie's mouth, shutting her up. "How?!" Luna asked through clenched teeth.
"Well, I..." "Found her." Celestia interrupted her. Twilight quickly rushed to the side of her old teacher. Celestia was holding a glowing orb in her magic. "This will allow us to know her location. But it won't give us any details about where she is or in what state she is."
It'll take a few hours, but Twilight would soon be able to save Trixie. CRAASHH Maybe a day with Pinkie's "Help". The thought of helping Trixie made her surprisingly happy. It was only a matter of time.
A void filled with an impenetrable darkness would suddenly and quite quickly be filled with matter and light in a blinding light show, where the silence is quite literally deafening. Life would follow suit after a few billion years of the universe's birth, when it has calmed down.
In theory.
As nothing is perfect, not even reality itself. Sometimes the universe has a flaw or two. This may lead to unforeseen consequences. Like allowing life to appear in the very first stage of the universe. Or even rarer, allowing said life to survive more than a second. Because for anything to trive, when matter and antimatter clash and when galaxies do not exist, should be impossible. To survive while the first stars and blackholes are birthed is no easy feat.
In theory.
So for something, anything, to not instantly perish it would have to be a being or creature with power on an unimaginable scale. And likely be beyond our comprehension.
It opened it's eyes, though it was an useless action as the only thing that existed was blinding light or absolute darkness. The first stars were born though quite a few were unfortunate enough to be born near the biggest blackholes in all of existence, who were born in pockets of pure, raw energy. It was also born in such a pocket of matter and unbelievable power.
Well, it wasn't really an "it". It was more that the concept of gender did not exist. Or even the word gender. Or the I and T. It and its kind couldn't even speak. Not that they knew what speaking was.
About its kind, it's the youngest one by about a few hundred thousands years. And it was born at the peak of creation, the universe at its wildest and powerfullest. And it showed. As it was the tallest of its kind even though it's only a few millennia old. It was actually two times bigger than it's lifegivers.
That was not the only difference between it and its kind. While they were bright like stars, it was made out of pure darkness, with a fiery light flowing around its body. Its kind would sometimes bump against a newly born star, the star would break while they remained unharmed. It, the youngest of its kind, could destroy stars by getting close to them.
Look, an entire galaxy was born and then extinguished in the matter of seconds. Yet it and its kind survived.
For any living being this would have been impossible. "It" did not care about such notions and concepts like physics and reality, simply because it did not know about that. So instead it simply jumped into stars like if they were puddles, the hottest material in existence felt lukewarm on its hide.
During the peak of the universe three more of its kind would be born and they were almost as big as it. Then the universe went into its next face. And more of its kind were born. And it did not care as it could not comprehend such concepts.
It was busy swimming into a massive red star. The burning plasma felt nice on its hide. And it enjoyed jumping into blackhole. It felt nice, the only drawback being that it would be thrown in another place of the universe. Other times it would travel through a galaxy in a matter of days. Though it did not know what days were. Sex was alos very common due to a complete lack of descency and restraint.
And that was it. There was nothing else to be done for the next billion years. It simply hung around, messing with celestial bodies, often resulting in their destruction. It was a fickle thing.
It stood there with its three cousins. Well he actually. Because he had broken through the barriers of the universe and entered another one. Which resulted in the untimely death of three solar systems. After killing an entire galaxy, by moving through it due to its unholy size, he discovered something. Life. Life on a planet. Obviously he had unintentionally and likely killed billions when he moved through that galaxy.
He obviously did not care as the concept of death did not exist to him. However curiosity was a thing. He tried to carefully get closer to the planet, which had both plant and animal life on it, some of which was sentient. So after practicing on some uninhabited planets he managed to get close to the inhabited world without destroying it.
And he discovered a lot of things. Like sexual dimorphism (explaining why his cousins were different from him) reading, arts, the concepts of war which he found very interesting, multiple sex techniques, music, the concept of life, parenthood, and so much more.
Its also how he discovered that he was a he. And that his three cousins were all she's. And that he had a mother and a father. For the next few tens of thousands of years he traveled through that one galaxy, visiting its inhabited worlds. Witnessing all that life had to offer. He found peace to be boring, but interesting. War, plagues, religious zealotry and violence itself however were fascinating to him. Ideologies were a curious thing to him. But that might be because his kind had never encountered politics.
Or anything really. They simply moved through the universe using celestial bodies as playthings. He felt slightly ashamed that he had lived for a billion years and had done so little. That would have to change.
So he went back into his own universe and told his entire kind, or would species be more accurate, about everything he had seen and discovered. And so all the members of his species and family, the concept family being another thing that he had discovered, started traveling through the universe.
However one thing he had not understood was the concept of death. So he was not bothered by the amount of lives that had been extinguished by his simple existence.
He stood there looking at his metallic creation. In his boredom he decided to mess with religion, magic, necromancy and robotics. Not necessarily in that order. He was two billion years old and he had learned a lot in the latter one. Creating cults, magical golems, undead abominations and much more. And now he was creating some ultra advanced robots.
The reason why? Because he could. He thought about having his own personal army, so he made one. Filled with insane machinery and fanatical golems, because no living being could stay sane being in his presence. And using a puppet body with a fraction of his mind wasn't as good as the real deal. But when you're the size of multiple galaxies you can't really hang out with normal beings.
Also creating cults and armies took time and were prone to mutinies and desertions. Sometimes he simply wanted to have fun. And war and gratuitous violence were very fun. And he still had not understood the concept of life. So people dying did not bother him, actually it amused him most of the time.
He kept working on his mechanical creations making new designs, humming a long forgotten tune to himself.
Have you ever witnessed the heat death of an universe? The true death, after Trillions upon trillions of trillions of years, when nothing is left and the barriers of reality crumble upon itself. It's beautiful. The most beautiful thing ever.
He and his cousins had witnessed it by accident. They entered into an universe on the brink of death, mere seconds before it died. And they got stuck in there. The four of them felt a mild amount of panic as they could not leave and could feel the universe dying around. That panic instantly disappeared when the universe died. It lasted for hundreds of thousands of years, but for them it might as well have been seconds.
The beauty was mesmerizing and undescribable. The four of them simply stood there watching.
And they survived unscathed.
Which should have been impossible for any normal being. The biggest and most powerful blackholes simply blipped out of existence. But they were left unfazed.
And then they were kicked out of the universe as it ceased to exist. And they had learned one thing.
Death is the most beautiful thing to ever exist.
Cosmo, he had heard that word somewhere. In a movie or book? Or was it an astrographer that had used that word? He quickly stopped thinking about it as he witnessed the gates of hell open and swallow a planet. Sometimes he would simply watch from the sidelines, other times he was the one responsible for opening the gates of hell. This time however he was using his cults and personnel armies to fight the demons.
Demons were fun to fight.
On another note his body had changed slightly. Now instead of having a pitchblack hide, it had become ethereal and taken a blueish-purplish hue.
He created multiple ways for him to be summoned and spread it across multiple universes. People would find them and use them. Sometimes it was an evil magician that wanted to use him to conquer a world, other times it was some sad peasant girl asking for world peace. It leads to many strange and interesting situations.
Big Toni died. Toni had chosen that name after visiting a pizzeria. Toni was also the oldest of their kind. And died of old age and was the first one to die of natural causes. Many more would follow as the years went on by.
And it was beautiful.
Finding an universe on the verge of death is not an easy task, because of their extremely long lifespans. He had only witnessed it four times in his long life. Now he would witness it for a fifth time. He held his cousins close to him.
They were very close to each other due to their strange biology and lack of decency. Normal societies would find it disturbing, but there was nothing normal about them.
As the four of them waited for the end, he could feel something tugging on his mind. And suddenly he was pulled away. Not all of him, just a part of his mind. Just enough for him not to miss the heat death of an universe and be distracted so that he could not enjoy it.
He recognised where he was. It was one of those proto-planets that would then become a new universe. The birth of an universe was nowhere as beautiful as the death of an universe. And it pissed him off that he couldn't witness it in its full glory.
It was easy to find whoever was responsible for this. A bluish quadruped was slowly falling down. He couldn't help but think about how gravity was strange here and led to very entertaining situations. This only distracted him for a few seconds as he focused once again on the quadruped, clearly a she.
She had ruined his fun. He did not take that kindly.
Noticing that the quadruped was in quite a sorry state and sensing what she had done with his ninth sense, of which he had fourteen. This gave him an idea. She would have some very unpleasant company. It would be entertaining to watch. And he would make it even better.
He could make this fun.
Not for the blue quadruped.
Not that he cared. She had ruined one of the most beautiful things ever. So she owed him.
The light from the amulet and the rift made it quite hard to see, even with the dark glasses on. I was not prepared for a fight, as the only reason that I was still conscious was because of the amulet.
Cosmo simply lay there lazily, waiting for me to do something. He was the last thing between me and my way home. a sizable obstacle I...
"What are you waiting for? The rift there, you can go home." Faustdammit, his words confused me and threw me off, again. "Why are you so confusing?!" I shouted. I was Trixie, a professional illusionist. The only spells I could properly use were illusion spells. Maybe that's how the crowd of ponies that witnesses my shows felt. Logic is overated!
That would explain why they were so prone to chase me out with pitchforks. Ineffective
"Logic is overrated. Confusion is superior." What he said felt... odd. Like I had already heard. Because you did I couldn't help but think about it. Cosmo simple stood there watching in amusement. "The whispers!" We've got a winner "You're respon..." "Nope." He interrupted me before I could fully accuse him of... whatever he had been doing to me.
"Someone else is responsible for that. Someone closer to you." Obviously I did not believe him, but in case he was telling the truth the amulet was my first suspect. Bingo, again But that implied that I was foolish enough to believe him again. which you are Untrue. I then facehooved. My mind kept getting off track.
"So you're not going to stop me?" I asked. It was clear from my tone that I did not believe him at all. "Yup." He answered without a care in the world. "What's the catch?" I knew there had to be more to it. "Nope, you just need to find the way home." which you don't trixie was tempted to simply jump into the rift to get home. jumpjumpjump
The smile on Cosmo's face told me that I shouldn't. Wise Actually it was making me angrier and angrier by the second. So much that my head started to hurt because of the anger. I closed my eyes for a second and when I opened them he was gone. left I turned my head to the left. Cosmo was now seating beside me. "I hate you." He flicked one of his clawed fingers, ignoring my declaration of hate towards him.
"Trixie really hates you." A trashcan blew up. His fingers had been pointed at it. "Remember that one guy with six legs." The joyful tone in which he had said that worried me. "I got bored so I blew him up."
I stared at him in disbelief. It couldn't be true. It is The armor that I was wearing bow felt oddly cold. "We could go back and forth about... whatever topic we can think about. But i'm bored." The simple lack of care was baffling. "Because I know entertaining things will happen, but for them to happen we have to get to act two." Discord was more coherent than him. disappointing And he might have caused chaos but he never killed anypony. restraint it seems
My hoof touched the amulet, slowly unclasping it DONTNO. Cosmo grabbed my face staring daggers at me, directly into my eyes. "Also I'm very petty and vengerfull. And you..." His claws were slowly digging into my face causing me to bleed a bit. "...you ruined one of the most Beautiful things in all of existence." He actually looked sad when he said that.
The amulet came off. The whispering stopped instantly.
"You were quite entertaining but now it's tim..." I smashed the amulet into his snout with as much strength as possible. He let go of my face. He fell on his back, nose bleeding. And then he laughed. So I smashed it in his snout again. And again. And again. The amulet started to crack. I was too busy hitting Cosmo to notice, his snout crumbling under every hit. He simply kept laughing, even as it became wet and garbled.
The amulet was covered in more and more cracks.
After another hit a big ugly crack appeared on the amulet, cutting it in half.
And after another last hit, it broke.
The world was swallowed in a blinding light. Cosmo laughter became louder before being drowned out by an even louder laughter.
Luna shuddered. A strange feeling of dread overcame her. "Are you alright sister?" Celestia asked her sister, having noticed her unease. "I'm alright." Luna reassured. "But I've got this feeling that we'vre forgotten something or that we had to do something else." She added.
"Don't worry, if you've forgotten then it wasn't important." Celestia also reassured her sister. "You're probably right."
"Everything is almost ready, it's only a matter of minutes." She casted one last spell into the scissors, which had taken a lot of effort to loosen and cute large holes in the ground and stones. "Lets go over the plan one last time." Everypony nodded. "I'll open the portal/rift with the scissors. Celestia, Starlight and Bagel will maintain it open while I and Luna use the tether to pull Trixie back in equestria. Everypony ready?" Everypony nodded in confirmation.
Luna still had this odd feeling of dread. But she ignored it. It was probably nothing like her sister had said.
The blinding light from the amulet slowly faded out leaving only laughter behind. The first thing I saw was Cosmo with his snout intact, all wounds that I had inflicted on him having disappeared. He looked amused and with one look the armor he had given me had disappeared. The only thing that remained was the mace. "keep it as a gift."
"Thank you, oh thank you for ending those three thousand years of boredom.""And for putting violence back into fun" "You should stop speaking as this will delay any events from happening by a lot." "Aaaaaw"
The three individuals let out a loud laughter. Well two as the third one only let a halfhearted chuckle out.
Well referring to them as three individuals might be wrong. One bipedal three-headed, six-armed individual would be more accurate. It reminded
"Hey, I identify as an chaotic being, so please refer to me using the proper pronouns." "She means she. Because our biological sex is female." She... "Plural." They reminded me of Discord.
The body at least as it was long and slender covered in patches of fur and scales. Their legs were also similar to discord's, one being a pony hoof and the other looking like it belonged to a dragon. Same for the arms. The left Ones were from a dragon, one from a diamond dog and one clearly a griffon. The right ones were one that ended in a hoof instead of a hand, another diamond dog one but with a different fur coloration and the last one came from a pink hippogryph.
One difference between them and Discord is the length of the limbs. They were all much longer and better proportionate in comparison with the main body. The legs were also longer than the arms. They were also wearing some big piece of cloth covering her chest and goind around the waist and covering the hips and everything in between.
However the main difference between them and Discord were the heads. because there were three heads attached to the body. "Correct." The one on the right clearly belonged to a grey furred diamond dog and was wearing a blindfold. there were some four or five pairs of horns jutting out of the back of her head. One of the horns looked like it was coming out of the eye socket, cutting through the blindfold. "That one gives me a constant itch."
"She's judging me." The one on the left looked like that species of big eared foxes. were it not for the fact that she had so many teeth and that they were so big that she couldn't even close her mouth. It was stuck in a never-ending unnerving and very wide smile. Her yellow fur did look very nice.
"Why is she unbothered by my presence? She should be bothered, I would be in her place." The head of the one in the center looked like Discord's head, but female. Like literally. No need to give any kind of extra description of the middle head. "Ouch. Another reason to punch him though. Also again why is she unbothered?"
One of the six arms pointed at a pink mush on the ground. "Because the cerebral matter in charge of fear and coherent thought were both thrown out of her skull. And because you wanted that to happen, so it happened." They grabbed the piece of the ground before shoving it back into my skull. "You're no fun.""And you talk toomuch."
I still stood there staring at the strange sight. "Her brain is back in one piece so why is she still unbothered?" "I'm pretty sure that you broke her." Cosmo chipped in. "So, while she's having a mental breakd..."
"What the FUCK is happening!?" I suddenly shouted. Both Cosmo and the three headed individual stared at me in amusement. My mind simply could not withstand more of this nonsense. "Three..." said the blindfolded head.
"Everything is ready." Twilight said enthusiastically. A rift was opened with the enchanted scissors, as Luna prepared to thro the tether through."
"Two..." "Wait, she's not staying? I was about to show her my chimera." The head in the center said disappointedly. "She's rude like that." Cosmo answered. "She really needs to work on her social skills." He added.
Trixie's mind was telling Trixie that leaving was the wisest decision to make. Even if it involved Trixie jumping into the rift."She doesn't even know our name."
The tether was thrown through. Celestia and Starlight kept the rift open, while Luna and Twilight held onto the tether. "There's a hole in the Eastern wall." Pinkie said out of nowhere. "What?" Asked pretty much everyone present. "What? Everyone knows that the Eastern wall of any building is also known as the fourth wall. And there's a lot of holes in it."
"One..."
"Before you leave let me show you my chimeras." This got my attention. The rest of Trixies mind was telling me to simply leave and that I would regret staying for even a second. The being then snapped two of her fingers. One in a left hand and one in a right hand. Suddenly both one aberration and one void jumper.
The aberration had a long slender birdlike head and a long snake tail for a lower body. The void jumper was covered in dull red scales, fluffy orange fur and had a pair of short stubby horns on the back of its head. Both looked very confused. They then grabbed the aberration and void jumper and slammed them together. Both creatures shouted in shock and a few limbs flew away.
What remained was one strange bipedal creature. It was covered in scars, stitches and even duct tape. It had the birdlike head that belonged to the aberration. It was still pitch black, however it now had a pair of stubby horns, a mouth with sharp teeth (likely belonging to the void jumper) and its left eye now looked normal, white with a yellow iris.
Its arms and legs were covered in stitches, as it switched from furred to scaled to complete darkness. The tail that used to be the aberrations lower body was now attached to the back of its body like normal tails. But with duct tape and nails.
The rest of the body looked similar. It looked like someone had taken two completely different creatures, cut them into pieces and stitched them back together into one singular creature. Which was busy smiling.
"Beholed, the chimera!" Shouted the middle head. "Take at least two creatures, alongside whatever inanimate object you need, add some water and you've got a chimera. Also zero."
After having seen that, Trixie decided to jump into the rift to get away from here. For the sake of both my mental and physical health. Using some levitation magic I propulsed myself towards the rift.
And I succeeded.
"At my signal we p..." Twilight tried to say before being unceremoniously being pulled through the rift they had created. Luna, who was also holding onto the tether, was pulled alongside her. Pinkie leapt after them but landed on the ground as the rift closed.
"That wasn't part of the script!" Pinkie shouted, her face covered in dirt.
"That... wasn't supposed to happen, wasn't it?" Starlight asked hesitantly. Celestia simply stared at where her sister and ex-student stood a second ago. A feeling of dread entered her mind.
Maybe Luna had been right to worry.
"I have to admit, I did not expect her to be so bold." Cosmo said nonchalantly. "She's rude. She never introduced herself and never let me introduce myself. The two, or four, of them stared at the still open rift. And then the three heads snapped one of its fingers. The rift suddenly closed.
"Luna is on her way." The blindfolded head said. The being snapped her finger again. "This will buy us some time. Because I need to make more chimeras.""VengenceVengenceVengence." The one with extremely long teeth looked ecstatic.
"I'll be taking my leave." Cosmo said. "You're not staying?" The middle head said disappointedly. "Oh I'll be watching, but from a distance. And if things get boring I might intervene." Cosmo then disappeared.
"Well, now we've got to prepare for the sixth act. "Wasn't it the second act?"
"You're great when it comes to exposition and convenient plot progression, but you just don't know when to shut up do You."
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!" The screaming stopped as both Twilight and Luna landed face first on the ground. Luna was the first one to recover from the fall. She spat something out, it was a broken tooth. She touched the gap where the tooth used to be. "That's going to hurt." She moaned in pain. She then looked around in search of anypony else.
She then saw Twilight lying on the ground, not moving. Luna rushed over to the unconscious princess. She then started shaking her to wake her up. Twilight quickly woke up. "Are you alright?!" Luna asked worriedly. "I'm alri..." She started answering before stopping as she noticed her surroundings.
It was... wild.
Little cottages straight from ponyville stuck on top of skyscrapers from manehattan, hospitals like buildings colored in twelve colors, horizontal buildings, houses made out of non-euclidean geometry and much stranger. Mostly eyesores.
"That's insulting." A voice said from behind them. Luna felt her stomach fall as she recognised the voice. Twilight groggily turned around. Her mouth fell open as she saw the individual behind her. Luna then turned around. "You!" Luna said with a low, somber tone, anger obvious in her voice. "Hiii!""Long time no see." "Three thousand, three hundred and fifty-seven years to be exact."
"Who's that?" Twilight asked hesitantly. I'm Eris. The middle head, which reminded Twilight of Discord's head, then winked to nopony in particular. "Andi'mmayhem!"
The one with massive teeth added joyfully. "We're actually all called Anarchy, my sisters might pretend to have different names but they never got it legally changed. Both due to the lack of trying and the amount of paperwork that it would take. Also said paperwork would burst into fire the second we get within writing distance of it." The blindfolded head, with a horn coming out of her left eye. "Shutup!"
Luna simply glared at the three headed individual while two of them told the third, very unbothered one, to shut up. "Girls, let's focus on our old friend." The middle head, then looked towards Luna. "Do you know them, Luna?" Twilight asked hesitantly. "Yes. And it's quite unpleasant." Luna answered, poison dripping with every sentence. "You wound me!" The goat's head said in an exaggerated manner. "Oh woeme!" The fenned-like head added.
"Could someone explain what's happening?" Twilight asked sheepishly. "This THING in front of you is named Anarchy." Luna answered without looking away from Anarchy, with disdain clear in her voice. "We met around three millennia ago, but less than three millennia and a century ago if I remember correctly." "Correct." "We've been waiting here for around three centuries preparing the DUNGEON OF VENGEANCE for you." "And a sizeable amount of chimeras and chimeran vehicles for chaos." "Andexplosives!" Added both of the heads.
"Vengeance, wh..." "Because that BITCH... Twilight was interrupted as an vengeful and forceful smile appeared on all three heads. ...Imprisonned us in an minusccule crystal for three FUCKING MILENIA'S!!" Twilight blinked, clearly scarred, before asking another question. "Could someone actually explain how you know each other and why..." She shook her hooves around to emphasize her confusion. "... everything is like it is?"
"She came to Equastrie a bit over the aforementioned three-melania's. She then caused a lot of chaos, like Discord did..." Luna started explaining. "Our younger brother." The blindfolded head interrupted. "...but unlike him these three actively caused death. Horrible deaths."
"Like melting, sudden loss of limbs, unexplained reversal of lungs, imminent increase of gravity..." The blindfolded head then started giving examples. "...loss of all liquids in the body, bullets, reversed bullets, hyper efficient organs, unexplained combustion, explained combustion..." "STOP YOU MONSTROUS FIEND!!" Luna then shouted to spare Twilight from more audible torture, as she now looked very sick and horrified."To be fair 100-percent of those were her ideas." The goat head said while pointing at the blidfolded one who nodded in affirmation.
"Get to the point." Luna almost growled. "Simple, get the teddy bear of salvation then head towards the temple of misery before heading to the old rift, that I closed, and then we have an epic battle."Here'samap!" The three then disappeared before a map drawn with rainbow colored crayons.
"Luna..." Twilight said through gritted teeth, her hair messy clear sign of an imminent mental breakdown. "...could you please give me an logical and detailed explanation so I could understand even a shred of what's happening?!" She then felt on the ground slightly sobbing. Luna put a wing over her to try and comfort her.
Luna sat down beside her. "When I was around fourteen I started traveling around the continent, as me and Celestia did not yet rule over what would be Equestria. And the three tribes were still at each other's throats." She started explaining. "I met two unicorns, a young dragon mage and gryphon alchemist who would accompany me on my voyage for the next few years." She looked happy for a moment, reminiscing about past adventures.
"When I was sixteen strange things started happening in some villages near the coast, all inhabited by earth ponies. Just rumors from seemingly untrustworthy and xenophobic farmers. What they told was often contradictory." She then sighed. "The truth was far worse. We'd fought some evil wizards and necromancers wanna-be. So we foolishly thought that we could handle it with ease."
"When we reached the village it looked normal, but then we met the villagers." Luna's face twisted in sadness. "Their eyes were rainbow colored, literally. Their pupils were indistinguishable from the white of the eyes, which were not white anymore. Manes ripped out, laughing so hard that blood poured out of their troats, carrying farming tools with murderous intent." A lone tear appeared on her face. "We tried to reason with them, but madness had overtaken them."
"It was very one sided. While they outnumbered us, our magic gave us an advantage and they did not care for tactics simply rushing at us and hitting their own." It became harder for her to speak. Twilight simply listened trying to keep calm, though tears poured down her face. "We then found the source of the madness."
"A flower pot."
Luna then stayed silent for a moment. "Wh-hat do you mean ?" Twilight asked hesitantly. "A flower pot, a normal, indistinguishable and empty pot. The only reason we knew it was the cause, was when my gryffon and unicorn companions were overtaken by the same madness as the villagers. Fortunately it wasn't instant, allowing us to destroy the pot and free them from its vile influence."
"We would face so much worse." Twilight's eyes went wide. "Those Chimeras that anarchy mentioned..." A look of disgust appeared on the older princess's face . "...are abominations of nature, evil and cruel, taking joy in violence and debauchery, feeling no empathy or mercy for anyone, not even themselves."
"Village after village, towns and castle's, even the mightiest of earth pony fortress at the time had fallen." Twilight couldn't help but think about how this was a piece of history that could be found nowhere else. It quickly faded due to the grim nature of the story. "Fields grew poisonous plants that would send anypony that ingested them to enter into a frenzy, Abominations made out of dozens of stitched bodies, ghosts and undead creatures besieging lone pony communities, it rained fire, the night was lighted by three unnatural moons, the day plagued by dark and malevolent shadows..." Luna started breathing faster and faster, not noticing that she had started to cry, as she gave more examples.
"And no help would come. All of it was contained to a single area around the coast. No-one knew about what was happening to Ponies, dragons, donkeys, zebras, hippogriffs and more knew nothing about the threat that was slowly spreading."
"And then we met them." A look of hatred appeared on the princess of the night face for a short moment. "All of it had been done for their entertainment. All that dead and suffering simply because they COULD!!" Luna screamed in rage, scaring the younger princess. Noticing that Twilight was now shivering, she started caresing her with her wings to try and reassure her.
After calming down she continued telling her story. "We tried to stop her. But she was too unpredictable, capable of reading others' minds and ironically predicting others actions with ease. We had other mages and farmers join us in our fight. None survived." A few more tears poured down her face. "Her powers of chaos were just too great. But..." She added thoughtfully.
"...it was a double edged sword." "How so?" Twilight asked, having calmed down after Luna's previous outburst. "Their own mind would betray them. Their powers were so chaotic that their own plans would backfire. They could read minds, but not choose which memory to read. Sometimes they would snap their fingers to, let's say, change the weather but instead their arm would explode."
"So, when we started crafting a gem to use against them, their own powers kept it hidden from them. Using gryffon alchemy, dragon scales and magic, alongside unicorn and alicorn magic, we created a magical gem capable of containing massive amounts of magic." Luna smiled slightly. "It was so satisfaying when we caught them by surprise and sealed them in the gem, ending their reign of terror."
"The sounds of them trying desperately to escape their new prison was music to my ears." Her smile then disappeared on her face. "Me and my companions split up. One of the unicorns, Bright Sight, being the oldest and wisest of us all took the gem with him. And I never thought about it again."
The both of them stood there silently for a few minutes. "We have to stop here." Twilight said, knowing that it was obvious. Luna silently agreed. The two adult and very powerful alicorns stood up and prepared to face Anarchy.
Anarchy then snapped four of her fingers. Two voices then let out a loud and hysterical laughter joined by a third voice chuckling.
Two ponies, one unicorn and one earth pony, were silently moving through the streets of Fillydelphia. The unicorn was carrying a strange rectangular object in her magic, said object was connected with cables to a griffon shaped mannequin that the earth pony was carrying on his back.
"Are you sure we should be doing this?" The earth pony asked hesitantly. "Were doing him a favor. How many times will I have to repeat that Burrow." The unicorn answered confidently. Both of them then reached a garbage container concealed in a side street. "If he hadn't gotten such a stupid idea in his head, we wouldn't be doing this." The mare added.
"Stupid griffon with their stupid ideas." She mumbled under her breath. "Isn't that racist?" The stallion asked in a sheepish tone. "No, it isn't!" The mare answered without a doubt in her voice. "This is just called having common sense." She then threw the rectangular object, quite violently, into the container. The stallion followed suit throwing the stranger mannequin into the container, almost as violently. If they had bothered listening to a previous explanation, then they would both have known that it was an animatronic, currently popular in Nova Griffonia, the Griffon Empire and The Griffon's republic.
And if they had actually looked into the container then they would have noticed that another, normal, pony mannequin. And also a whole bunch of cables, coils, nails, gears, a camera, a radio and other such miscellaneous items. Another thing they might have noticed is that both the animatronic and rectangular object, a battery for the animatronic, had been stabbed by many of the objects and were now flickering and twitching in a worrying manner.
"If that griffon hadn't had such a stupid idea than we wouldn't be doing this." The mare ranted. "What even is electricity? Magic is better in every way." The stallion was pretty sure that he had heard that electricity was being used in most cities, even this one. "You know what..." The stallion started saying. "...this is definitely not a good idea. I think you're just being racist. Or xenophobic like my cousin would said."
The stallion was about to grab the animatronic and it's battery, bit he was quickly stopped by the mare. "HOW DARE YOU!" The mare shouted. "I am not racist or whatever that other word meant." Both ponies were too busy arguing to notice the animatronic, now embedded with many pieces of scrap and a radio half stuck in its neck, was slowly and twitchingly standing up.
"I AM NOT" The mare took a deep breath. "NOT XENOPHOBiC!!" "YES YOu a..."The stallions retort was interrupted by a loud sound coming from the container. Both ponies turned towards the container. Before they could say anything both of their heads were grabbed by mechanical claws covered in cloth. Their mouths clamped shut, neither ponies could shout for help.
Both struggled, but it proved fruitless as the claws grip was too strong, so they could do nothing but stare. All cloth had been ripped off the animatronics face and a camera had been smashed into its face. The camera lense now served as an eye for it. The camera stuck in its throat then sprung to live. At first it was gibberish but after a moment it became clearer.
"X-x-xen-nophobia?" The machine said, like if it was asking something.
CRACK
The claws closed on each other with the heads still in its claws.
"Xe-xeno-no-nononon-phobia heheeee-he..." The machine then started limping away, giggling to itself, in search of its creator.
Equestria... actually the entire world of Equus is filled to the brim with large amounts of evil entities and ancient artifacts. Plenty of ancient buried temples and ruins where such artifacts were concealed.
Like an orb filled with a strange substance that would cause anyone that ingested it to suffer great mutation and gain a great intellect. The fact that it had been created using the blood of unwilling sacrifices and with foul intent meant that whoever ingested it would also become quite malevolent, losing all of their empathy and gain and an unnatural bloodlust.
Siad orb was now laying on a pedestal, in an old buried temple dedicated to the sun goddess. Multiple of its entrances were accessible above ground and in caves, but concealed by trees and bushes. Nopony had found it even though it was situated very close to the major city of manehattan. But it was teaming with rats.
That is until today. When a lone explorer found an entrance and after extensive preparation, entered the old temple. The next two day the pony had taken extensive amounts of pictures, taken some gems and bracelets and explored the upper area. The explorer after having then reached the main hall. They then proceeded to take more pictures of the broken, but still impressive statues and engravings on the walls.
After getting scared by some scampering rats, which had been an annoyance for the entire exploration, noticed the orb laying on a regal pedestal. Said pedestal was covered in cracks. The pony started getting closer, but stopped as they sensed some pain in their front right hoof. They then lifted their hoof seeing a rat dangling from it. It had bitten them. The pony started swinging their hoof around, trying to dislodge the rat.
They managed to swing their hoof hard enough that the rat's teeth snapped off, sending it flying... directly into the orb. The orb simply blew up after getting hit by the rat, covering it in a dark red substance. "Shit!" The pony sweared both because of the now destroyed orb and their current wound. They pulled out some bandages and alcohol to clean their wounds.
They did not notice the rat thrashing around. As its legs and arms twisted around and its bodies quickly increased in size. Two pairs of horns growing out of its head. It squeaked in pain. The pony did not notice. After a minute or two, all squeaking and thrashing had stopped.
The vermin then slowly stood up before wobbling towards the oblivious pony. The pony did not notice due to the many natural sounds around them. Like dripping water and all of the other rat.
They never noticed the vermin coming towards them.
The vermin searched through the ponies saddlebags, finding some old, still usable, ritualistic robes. They also put a bunch of jewelry and a necklace on, before grabbing the remains of the orb and whatever liquid was left. They then left the temple, followed by some curious rats.
After a moment they reached a tiny hill. It gave them a good look of the surrounding area. The city on the horizon was particularly noticeable. It then dropped some of the liquid on a nearby rat which would soon also grow in size.
Accidents happen. Like now when an unfortunate hippogryph had collided with a bird. This has caused both of them to lose their balance and start plummeting to the ground. The bird managed to regain its balance and fly away safely. The hippogryphs ended up with its neck twisted the wrong way around as they failed to regain flight.
Normally this would just be an unfortunate accident, however recent events had caused the walls of reality to be severely weakened. This combined with the fact that there always was something trying to enter your universe. And many of them can be summoned by doing a specific action.
The hippogryph had crashed into an indentation in the ground. This caused all the blood to pour together. The concentration of blood had caught the attention of less than friendly creatures. Creatures that had been trying to enter the world of Equus for a long time.
A long, scale covered arm then shot out of the tiny pool of blood. Another followed suit, before pulling themselves and the creature attached to them out of the ground.
The creature is covered in blood red scales and fur alongside patches of black fur. It stood on two legs significantly taller than a minotaur. Its left leg ended in a hoof, while the right one ended with a foot that had long sharp claws. Its hands were similar as its fingertips were long claws. Its head was lizard like, similar to the head of a monitor lizard but sharper and much more muscular. Four pair of horns were protruding out of the back of its head alongside one short, but still very sharp horn where its nose should have pain.
It wore torn black pants and a dirty leather belt. Its left arm was covered in heavy armor, the right one was covered in similar but lighter armor. Its lower legs were also covered in armor. It carried no helmet and its chest was uncovered. Its stomach was covered with a heavy metal plate. The last notable thing, besides the thick spike covered tail, was the longsword that it carried.
It then screamed an extremely loud warcry filled with joy, before lifting one of its arms that then started glowing bright red. A strange glowing star then appeared into multiple areas on the ground. Out of this glowing symbols more creatures were then summoned. Most tinier than the first one, but some covered head to toe in extremely thick armor. They carried spears, swords, flails and whips, masses, shields, hallebardes and other cruel weaponry.
Tinier ones carrying tinier rusted and makeshift weapons then started appearing.
All of the creatures, all of these demons then cheered as they spotted some direction markers pointing towards a lonely town. After some loud cheering the demons then started heading towards the town. They had every intention to burn everything in their way.
A lone sales pony was moving through the woods, pulling his carriage filled with items for sale. He was quite angry due to a bad day. He had to replace two wheels after they broke and had sold barely nothing this week. The latter was partially caused by the sorry state of his fur. He had the shave most of it after some blue bitch of a mare had covered in an painfully yellow dye.
She claimed that he had sold her some fake item. preposterous he thought, everything he sold was real and of high quality. He had actually left his old shop and gone on the road out of fear that the mare would come back.
The stallion swore as his carriage passed over a pothole that he had not seen. After checking that non of the wheels had broken. He sighed in relief as they were all intact. So he continued moving.
He had not noticed that an old box had fallen off. A nearby deer that just happened to be there did notice. The deer had just been there by pure random chance, having decided to travel through the world, currently in the desert near Appleloosa. He approached the box, noticing that the lock had broken. Getting closer he saw some red liquid pouring out of the box. There was a strangely sweet smell coming from the box.
He bowed down to get a closer look. Had he just stood a few centimeters away then he would have been out of range. Instead a fleshy mass with protruding bones leapt out of the box and attacked with a fleshy tentacle. The tentacle stabbed the deer in the eye, not deeply enough to hit the brain. The deer jumped backwards in pain, however the tentacle was stuck in his eye and thus he pulled the fleshy mass towards him.
The fleshy mass landed on the deer and quickly started tearing through the deer's flesh quickly silencing him. The fleshy then proceed to slowly tear the flesh and bones of the corpse. After a few minutes nothing was left of the deer except for it's fur and the fleshy mass had grown in size. It then started moving slowly taking a more coherent shape. Two legs, arms and a tail grew out of the mass, the deer skull was crushed before being reformed into a more canine skull and it stood up on two legs.
The mass now looked like a skinless, bipedal being. Then their eyes appeared into the skull and fur started growing. After half-a-minute all the fur had grown. The fleshy mass was gone, now replaced by a bipedal hyena-like creature.
The naked hyena looked around and spotted a billboard with the bright words "Welcome to Appleloosa!" written on it. The hyena now knew where to go. He then looked at the remains of the deer. Some fur and hide were all that was left.
