A/N - If you want to listen to some music while reading this, here's my suggestion.
Orion silently cursed for the thousandth time that night.
Under an old Canterlotian house, in a dark corner of a musty cellar, the bat-pony was doing his best impression of an inconspicuous shadow. The cool room was pretty ordinary as far as cellars went : it contained mostly wine bottles, various crates and boxes, old furniture, a set of ancient steel armor on a ponyquin and some paintings that may or may not have been valuable. The only unusual thing about it was what the ponies currently inside it were doing...
“Erion eigam
Serbmo sed essertiam
Strom sed eugnal
Essyba’l ed leppa…”
A dozen unicorns were chanting, their bodies adorned with creepy patterns in black, red and white paint. Their twelve horns were shining dimly and creating a rainbow-like circle of light around a crude stone altar...
Orion was one of Luna’s best spy, his coal-black fur ideal for lurking into the shadows and right then, probably the only thing that was keeping him alive. The princess of the night had tasked him with investigating the suspicious activities of a group of ponies and he had uncovered quite the secret society : supremacists unicorns, convinced that their race was the superior one and willing to take their “rightful” place at the top of the Equestrian pyramid.
When Orion had snuck into this reunion, he had expected a few ponies, planning some kind of terrorist act. Not some kind of creepy black magic ritual. That stuff was only supposed to exist in horror novels...
And now the bat-pony was stuck here, with only the darkness to keep him hidden. He had the feeling that he should be interrupting whatever they were trying to accomplish, but no matter how good he was in a fight, one against twelve were not good odds…
The magical light faded and some of the unicorns started to chat animatedly between themselves. Orion strained his sensitive ears to try and pick up on what they were saying. Too many were speaking at the same time to understand everything, but it seemed that they were arguing about their spell. It didn’t seem to go the way they wanted it to.
The stallion furthest from Orion -a white and blue pony whom he dubbed 12 o’clock since he didn’t know his name- spoke over the others, quieting them.
“We knew this wouldn’t be easy ! Now focus and let’s try again.”
4 o’clock, a young-looking pink and green mare, whined in a nasal voice that made Orion’s hair stand on his back. “We’ve been at hit for, like, hours !”
“And we’ll keep trying all night if we have to !” 12 o’clock answered with a frown.
“Are you even sure this’ll work ?” 7 asked him. “I mean, all we have is a tiny bit of Sombra’s horn, I doubt we can actually bring him back with-”
12 shut him up with a raised hoof and an angry glare. Orion wracked his brain to fit this new piece of information in. “Sombra… Sombra… Who’s that supposed to be ?”
The unicorn dozen stopped their bickering and relit their horns, starting with the creepy chants once again.
Still trying to remember where he had heard the name, Orion took the risk of slinking forward a little bit, getting a better view of the improvised altar at the center of the room. A small object was lying at its center, something that looked like a black and red fang.
“Is that the horn they were talking about ?” Orion’s frown let room for widened eyes when he remembered where he had heard the name of Sombra. The evil tyrant of the Crystal Empire… “Those idiots are actually trying to bring him back to life ?”
Whatever the reason, they seemed to be making progress, as crackles of energy started dancing around the stub of a horn. Orion had to bite his lip to prevent a stream of curse from escaping his mouth. There was little time left if he hoped to foil their plans…
“I could jump in there and grab the horn,” he thought to himself. “Then get blasted twelve times… Let’s call that plan B.” The black pony gave a quick look around, trying to find his plan A. The cellar was cluttered with random objects and there had to be something he could use…
He smiled when he spotted a roughly hoof-sized bronze gear, probably part of an old clock that ended up here for some reason. Orion didn’t really care as to why it was there, the only important thing being that it was small and heavy enough for what he had in mind. While the unicorns were all focused on their ritual, he grabbed it in the crook of his hoof.
“Only one shot…”
With his tongue sticking out of his mouth, he eyed the horn and judged the distance carefully… With a flick of his hoof, the gear went flying towards the altar.
Time seemed to freeze, the round piece of metal slowly making its way through the air…
Clink !
Orion almost whooped in victory when the gear hit the horn straight on. Both were sent into another dark corner.
“Tough luck, you freaks !” He had to force himself to contain his smile, to make sure that his bright grin wouldn’t give him away. “Let’s hope I bought enough time to fetch reinforcements. Now, to get the hay out of here...”
All light faded when the unicorns’ magic fizzled out. They started arguing amongst themselves again, asking each other where the horn had gone. The bat-pony took advantage of the confusion and slowly lurked in the shadows towards the exit.
Arcs of pure energy popped and cracked in the air, making Orion freeze. Above the altar, multicolored lights flashed faintly. The twelve unicorns were similarly watching the strange display with curiosity.
A shrill buzzing sound rang through the room and each of the dozen horns were wrapped in magic again. The twelve unicorns stiffened, as if struck. Their eyes glowed white and every one shot a beam of magic at the small sphere of energy at the center of the room… or was it draining it out of them ?
For almost a minute, the unicorns groaned and poured an enormous amount of energy into the ball, making it grow and swirl with twelve different colors, rolling and intertwining with each other.
Orion dove behind a crate, all the shadows gone now that the cellar was lit by its own miniature and multicolored sun…
The spell finally ended and the twelve ponies stumbled and fell to the ground in exhaustion. Meanwhile, all colors faded from the magic orb, turning to gray, then pitch black. Even after the cellar had become completely dark, Orion could still see the ball, like a shadow in the night, an impossibly negative amount of light.
“Is that…”
“King Sombra ?” one of the unicorns asked aloud. He cast some magic light in an effort to see the black orb more clearly. It didn’t answer, instead flying around the room as if looking for something.
The ball of darkness suddenly dove to the antique suit of armor that was stored a few meters away from Orion. The bat-pony could see black sparks and arcs dancing around the metal for a few seconds, then nothing…
The thirteen ponies in the room all held their breath and stared at the armor, wondering what to expect. Some of them flinched when the various pieces of metal flew off from the ponyquin that had been holding them, then hovered above the ground in front of it. The armor slowly pieced itself back together, holding on nothing but magic and mimicking an actual pony. It moved a little, as if a someone was inside, but from his hiding spot, Orion could clearly see that the armor was absolutely empty...
Orion’s hair all stood on end when the thing spoke. The voice was impossibly deep, so much that it could have put a huge dragon to shame, and had a growling texture that could have made the walls crumble if it had been loud enough.
“Ah… The world of the living...”
Its helmet… or its head... turned around to get a look at the cellar. It lifted a leg in front of its face, then examined the rest of its body. “Hmmm… This should do...”
The unicorns huddled together and faced the apparently living piece of armor. They exchanged a few glances, until one of them cleared his throat and dared to speak.
“King Sombra ? I- Is that you ?”
“Who ?” the thing asked back with its creepy, purring voice. It settled its gaze on them, making the unicorns wince a little. “I’m no king…”
The ponies watched each other with worried expressions.
“What kind of monster did they pull out of… whatever place it was in ?” Orion was split between the urge to run away as fast as possible and staying to learn more… Considering how silent the room was at the time, staying put seemed to be the best choice.
“Who are you ?” the white stallion asked, taking a step forward and trying to look confident.
The suit of armor turned to face him. Orion could hear the stallion gulp from his hiding spot.
“My name is Stone Mane.”
Silence reigned over the room for a moment.
“Who ?” This time, it was one of the unicorns who had asked the question.
“You’ve never heard of me ?”
The twelve ponies glanced at each other and shrugged, muttering “no” or shaking their heads. In his corner, Orion was as much in the dark as them… His name sounded like a pony’s name, but that hardly meant anything.
“I see,” the thing said. “It must have been quite some time…”
The group of unicorns started to whisper to each other, too low for Orion to understand. Instead, he focused his attention on Stone Mane. The stallion (he assumed it was a stallion) was looking around. On the thing’s helmet-head, the piece of metal intended to protect the wearer’s horn lit up a pale blue. A few steps away, a wine bottle levitated from its rack, enveloped in the same dim haze. Stone Mane floated it around, up and down, left and right, until he was apparently satisfied and teleported it back in its place.
The apparent leader of the twelve ponies cleared his throat before addressing the unnatural creature.
“It seems that our spell did not have the intended effect, but we might still be able to salvage the situation. You see, we are part of a group of unicorns who know that our race is the only one fit to rule Equestria…”
Stone Mane seemed to be chuckling at this, but his voice was so unusual that it was hard to tell. He might have been growling…
“Our intention,” the white stallion continued, “was to bring back King Sombra to life and make him our leader. Perhaps… you would be interested in helping us… I think we were close to success, maybe with-”
“I bow to no pony,” Stone Mane said in a tone even colder than before. “And definitely not to an amateur such as yourself.”
“What are you…” The stallion frowned at the empty armor. “We’re the ones who brought you here, you ought to show a little respect. After all…” His voice died down as Stone Mane laughed out loud, a deeply disturbing sound.
“You’re nothing but little colts and fillies playing with things you don’t understand… All you did was open a tiny crack in the veil. I did the rest.”
The dozen unicorns exchanged looks, but the leader soon glared back at Stone Mane. “I’m pretty sure we can send you back to wherever you came from.” He tried to take an intimidating posture. “So here’s the deal : you work with us or you die.”
“Death threats might work better if I wasn’t dead already…”
The haze around Stone Mane’s horn-equivalent came back, bright and strong. A bolt of magic hit the lead stallion straight in the chest, lighting him up like a blue firefly. He yelped in surprise, but seemed fine otherwise… A few seconds later, he lifted a hoof in front of his eyes, observing the magic glow. A circle of brighter blue was appearing at the edge of his hoof and moving up his leg.
He screamed in terror when he saw the magic disintegrate his flesh, working its way up and leaving only white bones behind. He tried to swat the strange glow with his other hoof, only to realize that it was getting consumed identically. Casting spells of his own didn’t make any difference, the magic eating him relentlessly.
All the other unicorns screamed too, shouting, crying and running around in panic while the stallion progressively turned into a bare skeleton.
Orion couldn’t take his eyes off the gruesome spectacle. His heart was beating like a drum in his ears, his mouth locked shut by the sheer horror. It took less than a minute... thirty seconds at most… When it was done, the stallion’s skeleton was standing in place with a little haze of blue magic lingering along his remains, the only thing betraying what had happened.
“Come over here,” Stone Mane told the pile of bones, gesturing next to him with a hoof.
The skeleton nodded its skull and walked to the living armor’s side.
“Much better.” He patted it a few times on its skull like an undead puppy.
The eleven remaining unicorns didn’t dare move, huddled in a corner as far away from Stone Mane as possible. Some eyed the door.
Orion did the same… He was still quite far away and out of objects to hide behind. The bat-pony ducked and melded with the shadows, his only hope right then being to remain unseen.
Stone Mane took a couple steps towards the group of unicorns. “Does anypony else feels like giving me orders ?”
“We- We’ll do what you want,” the pink mare said, giving quick glances at her fellows. They all nodded urgently. “You don’t have to kill us, we’ll do whatever you ask…”
“Hmmm…” The monstrous pony tapped the chin of his helmet with the tip of his hoof-guard. “Interesting.”
The unicorns seemed to relax a little at his words.
“But why would I trust your word when I can trust my magic instead ?”
The blue magic shone again, casting eerie shadows on the walls. Before Orion even had time to blink, a mare had been hit by his spell. She shrieked in fear while Stone Mane was blasting away at the next one.
The room filled with the sounds of ponies screaming, of magic fizzling around and of hooves striking on the stone as some dashed for the exit.
One stallion tried to blast Stone Mane away. His ray of magic hit the steel armor, boring a hole clearly through it. The undead unicorn simply hit him in return, then focused his magic on the metal, repairing it as if nothing had ever happened. By the time he was done, half of the stallion was already turned into a skeleton.
Stone Mane calmly turned towards the door and the young mare rushing for it. The handle glowed in her magic for about a second. She didn’t even have time to pull it before being struck and seeing her flesh disappear in the blue haze.
The next pony, an older stallion, fell on his knees when Stone Mane faced him. The terrifying mage didn’t bother listening to his pleas and a few seconds later, a pitiful pile of bones was left lying on the ground.
Orion dove back behind his crate, cursing his sensitive ears. Even with his hooves on them, he could still hear the horrified screaming of the unicorns being transformed one by one.
“Horseapples ! Horseapples ! Horseapples…”
It took all of his will and training to prevent him from breaking into a blubbering mess.
“If he finds me…”
Orion shrunk onto himself, trying to become the smallest ball of bat-pony fur anyone had ever seen.
Silence eventually fell over the room for a moment. Orion took his hooves away from his ears, trying to figure out what was happening.
Light hoofsteps echoed, accompanied by the clinking of bones. The steel armor clinked and groaned a bit… Gulping hard, Orion dared to peek above the wooden crate.
Stone Mane was standing in the middle of the room, with twelve unicorn skeletons gathering around him.
“Very good,” the monstrous pony said to his newly acquired undead slaves. “I will make good use of you ponies. Until I need you, hide in here.”
The skeletons all nodded as one and headed for the dark corners of the cellar.
“Holy horseapples !”
A couple were already heading towards Orion, their bony hooves clicking on the stone like a countdown to his demise.
With only one option left, the night guard decided to make a run for the door.
After a quick prayer to all four princesses, just in case, he pushed his legs and flapped his wings at the same time, bolting out of his hiding spot like a bat-pony out of Tartarus… which was a sadly appropriate comparison…
It took him only one second to leap over the crate, then two more to reach the door.
“I’m going to make it !”
His mouth clamped on the handle and yanked in one, solid move.
Nothing happened.
His eyes widening, Orion dug his hooves in the ground and pulled again. Then pushed. Then pulled again.
Nothing happened.
Slowly, he took a step back and watched the handle. A pale blue haze was shining around it.
Orion turned around, finding himself face to face with an empty suit of steel armor. His heart missed a beat when he looked into the eyeholes and saw one tiny blue flame of magic burning inside of each. Stone Mane spoke, without a mouth or a jaw, sound simply emanating from inside the helmet...
“Catch him.”
As one, every skeleton started running towards Orion. Instinctively, the bat-pony stepped back, but felt the wood of the door against him. A quick glance let him know that the handle was still held firmly by Stone Mane’s magic.
The bat-pony grit his teeth and adopted a fighting stance. The skeletons didn’t care one bit, calmly making their way towards him.
He jumped forward and with one strong punch, sent one of the skeletons into a shapeless pile of bones to the ground. Then another. A swift spinning kick dismantled three next. He flew up when two more tried to jump on his back and after a quick loop in the air, planted his hooves in their necks, projecting the two skulls away.
The guard jumped, dodged, punched and even cartwheeled until there was only one pony standing in the room with him, the one at the source of this whole nightmare. With a snarl, Orion dashed forward and planted his hoof right into Stone Mane’s head.
The steel groaned and bent.
Calmly, the living armor raised a legging and pushed him away. The indent he had made into the helmet immediately smoothed itself, leaving the metal in pristine condition.
Behind him, Orion heard the sound of hooves. A quick look over his shoulder revealed the twelve skeletons in the process of reassembling themselves. Bones magically floated back into their proper places. One pony picked a skull and hoofed it to his neighbour, who quickly stuck it at the end of his neck…
Cold sweat ran down the guard’s neck.
Twelve against one were bad odds. An infinity against one weren’t even odds at all. Orion fought for as long as he could, but under Stone Mane’s patient gaze, the skeletons eventually immobilized him. Four dozen hooves dragged him in front of the empty suit of armor.
“Hmmm… A night-pony, spying on a bunch of racist unicorns... Who sent you ?”
“Turn me into one of those monsters if you want,” Orion said, wincing from the rough treatment the undead ponies were giving him and glaring at the crazy, burning eyes. “I won’t tell you anything.”
“Really ?” Stone Mane asked with mock surprise. “Let’s try something different, then…”
He sat on his metallic rump in front of Orion. Two empty leggings reached up at the helmet and pulled it away from the rest of the suit, then turned it around.
The bat-pony’s eyes widened when he saw the helmet being approached from his own face.
“What are you doing ?” He shouted and squirmed, trying his best to get away.
Unfortunately for Orion, forty-eight cold, dead hooves were holding him in place.
The helmet was forced on his face. Everything suddenly went dark...
“Orion… Orion !”
The bat-pony’s eyes fluttered open. The sweet, feminine voice reminded him of home, of safety, of…
“Hmm… Mom ?”
“Get up, sleepy-head !”
“Hmpf. Five more minutes.” He turned back, digging his head deep into his pillow.
His mother chuckled warmly. “Are you sure ? Don’t you remember what day today is ?”
“Whu ?” He thought hard about the date… and gasped. “It’s my birthday.” In a second, the colt had sprung out of his bed and zipped past his mother. Three seconds later, he was in the living room, where a delicious-looking cake was waiting for him. The rest of his family was already there, too, all of them congratulating and cheering him.
The party went on perfectly and soon enough, the young Orion was in front of his birthday cake, ready to blow the candles. He took a big gulp of air…
… and paused when a strange pony caught his attention at the corner of his eye.
Unlike the rest of his relatives and friends, this one was a unicorn, with pitch black fur and a white and gray mane. When Orion looked him in the face, a pair of blood-red eyes stared back. Stone Mane frowned wickedly and walked towards Orion.
“I have no interest in your foalhood memories,” he said in a raspy bass voice. His horn flickered with blue light for a second.
Orion cried in surprise as the few candles turned into blazing torches and everything caught fire. His parents, his friends, his home… He remained immobile, frozen in place like a statue while everything burned. His mother’s mane was the first thing to be consumed, her soft and silky hairs turning into black and dry bristles, breaking under their own weight. The flesh was the next thing to go, breaking open under the heat and slowly drying until only char was left. It fell off progressively, sometimes as tiny flakes and sometimes as big clumps falling to the ground with a wet “thump”, leaving only bones behind. Those, too, were incinerated and finally turned into a thin and light ash, dispersing in the air.
After what seemed to be an eternity, nothing but darkness was left around Orion. A pair of red eyes shone in the shadows.
“Who are you ? Who do you work for ?”
Orion tried to step away from the unicorn, only to find his legs unable to lift from the ground. Looking down, he realized that they were actually part of the ground. His head shot up in panic, staring at Stone Mane. “What did you do ?”
The unicorn ignored his question, only speaking louder. “Is it Princess Celestia ?”
“The princess ? What ?”
“Answer me ! Show me !”
The bat-pony grit his teeth and shook his head. “Leave me alone !”
Stone Mane growled. “Stubborn foal… Very well. I’ll get the answers myself.”
His horn shone with blue light, brighter and brighter with every second, until it overcome everything. Orion stood immobile in a universe made of blue, while Stone Mane seemed to fade into a black shadow in front of him.
Like a cloud of smoke, it swirled and drifted in the air. Tendrils appeared and coiled like tentacles trying to feel their way around. They slowly approached Orion’s face.
His only instinct was to move back. He flapped his wings and strained his muscles, but remained rooted to the ground like a tree. The black tendrils reached up and touched his muzzle, feeling rubbery and cold as steel.
Orion turned his head away. He shook it to try and dislodge them, but there were only more and more of the dark limbs grabbing him, until their grip was strong enough to immobilize his face.
The bat-pony screamed when one forced its way into his mouth. He tried biting it, but as inconsistent as it looked, the thing was actually hard and tough. More tendrils followed, going through his nose and mouth. He felt the cold substance reach up inside his head, making its way higher and higher.
The cold reached up to behind his eyes and his vision darkened slightly, as if he was watching through the black smoke. Orion could do nothing except shriek desperately as he felt the tendrils squirming and coiling inside of his head, feeling their way in and slowly, slowly going further, eventually poking inside his brain and triggering unspeakable pain. It felt as if every part of his body was being ripped apart at the same time, over and over again.
The numbing darkness Orion felt coming was more than welcome...
Light came back when he saw the world swirling around him, eventually stabilizing into what he recognized as a park in Canterlot. He was sitting on a bench, with his girlfriend snuggling against him. Sweet Pea, a beautiful red and blond pegasus mare...
“This is such a beautiful night,” she cooed.
He watched the starry sky and smiled. “It is… but not as beautiful as you.”
She giggled. “This is such an old line…”
“But it’s still true,” he answered, tearing his gaze off the stars to watch her brilliant sapphire eyes. “I’d rather spend the night watching you than any old nightsky.”
“And I don’t care,” Stone Mane’s gravelly voice snarled from behind, making Orion jump in place.
“Who’s that ?” the mare asked.
Before he could answer, the unicorn had poofed into a cloud of smoke. Orion’s eyes widened.
“No…”
His plea was pointless, Stone Mane again forcing himself straight into his brain, with the same disgusting feeling and unbearable pain. Orion could only think of beating his head against the ground, gouging his own eyes out, tearing his mane apart until the pain finally ended.
Had he been able to move a muscle at that moment, he would have tried…
This time, things didn’t fade to black... The pain receded and pink clouds made of cotton candy popped into the sky, while the statue in the middle of the fountain came to life and started spraying any nearby pony with vinegar-flavored milk. The bench that the two ponies had been sitting on stood up and left, tap dancing his way out.
Stone Mane reappeared in front of him in a flash of blue magic. “What kind of memories are those ?” the unicorn asked with a raised eyebrow.
Orion pointed a trembling hoof at the silhouette of a laughing draconequus backstroking through the sky. “Discord…”
“Huh... That looks like an interesting character, but not who I’m looking for.”
Orion wailed again as Stone Mane dug into his brain once more.
Sweet Pea’s sweet voice whispered into his ear. “Hey, honey… How about we find some private place…”
Orion opened his mouth to answer, but froze when he saw Shining Armor walking up to him.
“Private ! Why aren’t you at your post ?”
Orion could only stammer as Sweet Pea kept whispering incredibly tempting suggestions in one ear and his captain barked orders in the other. All of this while trees spontaneously uprooted themselves and organized a race.
Stone Mane muttered something about useless memories. There was more invasion of his skull, and more pain.
One side of the park turned into the palace’s main ceremonial hall. Hundreds of ponies were gathered on each side of the central alley, princess Celestia standing at the end and waiting for the mares of the hour.
The black unicorn smiled like a maniac. “There’s our princess !” His blood-red eyes were actually twinkling.
Meanwhile, Orion was still stuck in place, his breathing short and shallow. Sweet Pea rubbed against him provocatively, begging him to take her home. Shining Armor ordered him to fly twenty laps around the courtyard. Discord’s chaos reigned freely all around. Stone Mane stared at the ceremony with his unhinged smile.
Six mares appeared, walking towards the princess.
“Wait !” the undead unicorn suddenly said. “Who’s that one ?” He pointed his black hoof at a young purple mare. “What do you know about her ?”
Orion tried to focus on the pony, but between the aftershock of his brain trying to shut down and Sweet Pea kissing him lustily on the neck, thinking was a challenge… “Huh…” he managed to stammer out. “Twi- Twilight… Twilight Sparkle ?”
“What else do you know about her ? Show me !”
“No… Please. No more !”
Pure pain was Stone Mane’s only answer.
A part of the ground crumbled, leaving behind the dark caves where Orion had grown up. His mother calmly walked out.
He had barely had time to recognize the partial memory before being martyrized again.
Celestia appeared in front of Orion, while still in the ceremonial hall. One Celestia had a happy smile on her face, the other a look of unadulterated fury. Both spoke at the same time.
“We are gathered here today to put an end to your madness. There is nothing equine left in you… It’s time I stood up to the villain Discord and saved Equestria. May you find peace.”
The angry Celestia struck Orion with her magic, somehow managing to hurt every single nerve of his body again. The bat-pony screamed while the happy Celestia smiled and chatted with everypony.
Once the pain finally faded, Orion was left standing in place, sobbing and shuddering like a poor hurt foal.
Stone Mane stepped forward in his field of view. “Sorry, that memory was one of mine.”
“Wh- Wha ?”
“Dying is not much fun, is it ? Ah well, I got over it,” he said with a shrug. “Now, what else is there in your brain ?”
“No ! Please stop ! I’ll do whatever you want… Just… stop…”
The unicorn chuckled to himself. He smirked at Orion. “You’re already doing whatever I want…” He dissolved into black smoke again.
Pure pain.
A much younger Twilight walked up some stairs leading to the palace. Celestia greeted her when she reached the top and the two walked away.
More pain.
Orion was snuggling in a bed made of cotton candy with Sweet Pea and Shining Armor, while his mother was telling him the legend of Nightmare Moon.
Yet more pain.
Discord was congratulating princess Celestia for defeating him, revealing a stained glass window depicting Orion’s mother and Shining Armor’s bodies forming a heart shape high above a big cherry pie.
Standing on the ceiling, an upside-down princess Luna was giving a speech to all the gathered bat-ponies. She spoke in older Equestrian, with Sweet Pea’s voice and telling everypony exactly what she wanted them to do to her and how.
“What’s this ? Another princess ?”
Orion could barely tell where the voice was coming from. It was getting so difficult to keep track of everything going on at the same time, especially when-
His brain felt like it was melting again.
The endless pain… Orion’s head felt like it wanted to explode, but couldn’t. If only it would just burst like a rotten tomato, so that he wouldn’t have to feel it anymore… But it didn’t. It wouldn’t.
As images of his first flight mixed with last night’s dinner, his acceptance into the guard, princess Cadance’s wedding and the time he had broken one of his legs, the stallion finally gave up.
He stayed there, standing helplessly and crying like a foal, screaming every time Stone Mane extracted whatever memories he was fishing for inside his mind.
Nothing made sense anymore, all the princesses mixing with one another in a grotesque four-headed entity. Every pony he had ever met came and went into a whirlwind of random places, some familiar, some he could hardly remember.
It didn’t matter what memories came up... When he wasn’t interested, Stone Mane would ignore it and extract something else. When he was, he would dig for more on the same subject. In any case, the smoky tendrils would violate and torture him again.
Time stopped having a meaning as Orion’s life was dissected by the crazy unicorn.
And for the helpless bat-pony, it had become clear an eternity ago that once he would be finished, Stone Mane had no intention of putting it back together…
Princess Celestia was enjoying the peace of the night, from the depths of her royal bed. Her regal attire was set aside, waiting for the morning and barely glinting in the pale light of the moon. The white alicorn herself was smiling in her sleep, enjoying the most delicious cakes her mind could conjure in her sleep.
“Princess…” It was barely a whisper, like the sound of the wind rustling leaves.
One pearly white ear flicked at the noise, but Celestia stayed comfortably deep in the land of pastry-filled dreams.
“Celestia… Wakey wakey !”
The princess grumbled a little as her dream vanished into darkness and she slowly came awake. She opened one eye.
A black unicorn stallion was standing above her on the bed, staring at her with intense, blood-red eyes. His face was almost touching hers and split by a grin much too big to be comforting.
Her eyes widening in panic, the princess scooted back, sending her covers into a ball at her hooves and ending up with her back pressed against the wall.
She blinked, seeing nothing on the bed besides herself. The only thing she could hear were her panicked breaths and her heart beating against her chest.
The princess shook her head, disappointed at her fillyish reaction and silently thanking the heavens that nopony had been there to see her night fright… She took a few deep breaths to calm herself and slid back into her bed, levitating the sheets over her. Trying to remember what she had been dreaming of, she closed her eyes again.
A dark chuckling made them open back in a flash.
“Do I have that much effect on you, princess ?”
Faster than anypony could have believed possible for an eons-old mare, princess Celestia stood on her bed, facing the intruder.
A pony, completely encased in steel armor, was standing next to the opened window leading to her balcony. The princess recognized the leathery wings of a bat-pony, but the helmet he was wearing was designed for a unicorn, a sharp, hollow spike of metal protruding from the forehead and giving him the appearance of a grotesque caricature of an alicorn.
“It is good to know that you haven’t forgotten my face yet…” the pony said, staring at her. She saw a faint blue glow inside the slitted pupils.
“His face ?” Celestia asked herself. She could not see it under the helmet, but if he meant the previous apparition… She kept a neutral expression, but her mind was working fast, recalling the unicorn… Black, with a white and gray mane above a pair of vicious-looking red eyes…
“Who are you ?” she asked sternly.
Nopony but her could have known that particular unicorn and she was extremely curious as to how that bat-pony could have learned of him.
“You didn’t recognize me ?” he asked back, sounding almost hurt.
“I did recognize that face, but it belongs to a pony who died a long time ago… Now, tell me who you are !” She lit up her horn in a threatening display.
“Ah yes… You should know better than anypony else about that. After all, you’re the one who killed me.”
Celestia glared at the pony, raising an eyebrow suspiciously.
“You should also know that it did not stop me, my dear princess.”
“Stone Mane…” The princess frowned at the armored pony.
“Did you miss me ? I missed you...”
“That’s impossible,” Celestia said, almost growling at him. “I destroyed you ! How could you have come back ?”
The blue glare in his eyes seemed to intensify. “Yes, I remember that very well, princess…”
He took a few steps, pacing around and keeping his eyes fixed straight on hers. “You didn’t destroy me as thoroughly as you thought. If you want to know, you only trapped me outside of this world. How I came back is irrelevant, though.” Stone Mane tilted his head to the side a little, staring at Celestia from an odd angle. “You should worry about what I will do instead…”
“You will do nothing !”
The princess shot a blast of golden magic, but he jumped out of the way. Celestia tried to hit him several more times, but to no avail : the stallion used hooves and wings to dodge every spell.
As she took a break to reevaluate her strategy, the stallion laughed under his breath. “Just like old times…”
Celestia seized him with her magic, levitating him off the ground and preparing her next spell.
Without flinching, Stone Mane shot a burst of magic at her horn. She yelped, more from surprise than anything else, but it was enough to break her concentration and let the stallion go free. He immediately retaliated with his own attacks, forcing the princess to shield herself inside a golden bubble of magic.
The door burst open and the two dueling mages only had time to turn their heads in its direction before two white and golden blurs passed through the room.
A white pegasus guard tackled Stone Mane, tumbling on the ground with the armored bat-pony. His helmet fell and rolled on the ground from the impact.
The other guard placed himself in front of Celestia, standing tall with his wings spread wide.
“I’ve got you,” said the one holding Stone Mane down.
“On the contrary…”
Celestia shuddered at the voice coming out of the empty helmet. If she had still doubts before, they were all gone now : the last time she had heard that unnatural sound, it came from Stone Mane’s empty skull…
The helmet rose in the air, supported by a thin cloud of darkness vaguely shaped like a pony. It turned its head towards the guard.
“... you’re mine !”
A ray of blue magic hit the guard. Celestia tried to pull him out of the way, but her own magic came a split second too late. The guard landed at her hooves, completely wrapped by the blue haze, as if it was sticking to his fur.
The glow became more intense, almost white, creating four small circles at the tip of his hooves. Those quickly made their way up his legs.
Behind them, nothing was left but bones...
The guard screamed, his eyes bulging out of his head while he saw his body being rapidly consumed. His colleague winced back, wings splayed out in panic.
Celestia wasted no time and cast a spell to cancel Stone Mane’s magic. Gold mixed with the blue into a sickly green.
The princess stared with wide eyes when her counterspell didn’t work. The green simply turned back to blue and the flesh kept disappearing behind it. She cast another one... then another one...
The guard was staring at his legs, already consumed up to his elbows and shouting, begging Celestia for help.
“It’s too late for him,” Stone Mane said calmly.
The princess only spared him an angry glare before casting all the spells she could think of. Healing magic, antimagic, anything possible…
Nothing worked.
“Princess !” The guard called to her. He watched her. His eyes spoke of incomprehension, terror... They begged her, the last ray of hope threatening to disappear.
Celestia grunted and gave everything she had, trying to stop the unrelenting tide of blue magic eating his body.
It reached up to his chest. It rolled up his neck. It erased his face...
The last thing Celestia saw were the two eyes, leaking tears and wordlessly asking her why she wouldn’t save him.
In front of the princess laid nothing but a skeleton inside a suit of golden armor...
She did not allow herself to cry. There would be time for that later…
“Come here,” Stone Mane called.
The former guard’s bones stood up and walked near him.
Princess Celestia glared at the empty helmet and the blue flames burning inside each eyehole. She saw those shift to the other guard…
Both Celestia and Stone Mane lit up their horns at the same time, but this time, the princess was faster. The white pegasus was winked out of the room with a flash of golden light.
The undead pony simply chuckled and let his magic fizzle out while Celestia seethed with pure rage. He calmly hovered next to the bat-pony lying on the ground and she got a good look at the previously concealed face.
Her eyes widened when she recognized the night guard’s face.
“Orion ?”
The bat-pony was whimpering and sobbing on the ground, tears flowing from his eyes and a trail of drool dripping from his opened mouth.
“Orion !”
“Mo- Mommy ?” he said in a pitifully shaking voice. “Mommy, I don’t wanna go…”
The armored bat-pony glowed blue for an instant as Stone Mane picked him up from the floor like a rag doll and put him on his hooves. He swayed from side to side like a drunkard.
Celestia glared furiously at the empty helmet floating in the air. “What have you done to him ?”
“Who cares ?” the undead unicorn answered flatly. “He’s more useful to me like that.”
Orion’s eyes turned to the princess. His pupils were dilated, two completely round discs instead of their usual cat-like slits. It took a while, but some look of recognition appeared on his face. He only managed to utter one word, but it almost made Celestia’s heart stop.
“Help…”
The helmet immediately shoved itself on his face, blue light shining through the eyeholes for a few seconds. Those few seconds were punctuated by Orion’s terrifying shriek.
Celestia swallowed the lump in her throat. It tasted like bile.
“You will pay for this, Stone Mane. You can trust me, nothing will remain of you, this time… I’ll hurl you into the Sun !” She summoned an enormous amount of magic in her horn, getting ready to make good on her promise.
“Oh, I do not doubt your words,” he answered, using Orion’s voice. “I know you can defeat me.”
Stone Mane disappeared in a flash and reappeared a few steps away… and in fifty other places at the same time.
Celestia swiveled her head left and right, finding herself surrounded by copies of the armored bat-pony. Huffing, she simply shot a spell at one of them.
The magic only made the illusion shimmer.
“You see, princess, you have given me a lot of time to think…” every copy of Stone Mane said at the same time. “How long has it actually been ? Three, four hundred years ?”
The princess did not answer, building up magic in her horn.
“Last time, I tried to destroy you… That was stupid of me. Now, don’t get me wrong... I haven’t forgiven you.”
A hundred of blue glowing eyes glared at Celestia, shining like angry fireflies in the night.
“Ever since I died, all those years ago… Ever since you killed me…” He growled the words out. “I have had only one thing in mind : revenge. I wasn’t thinking straight back then... I thought destroying you would be a good revenge. But It isn’t. No, no… You don’t deserve death, princess. You deserve pain and suffering...”
“Then why don’t you stop talking and face me, Stone Mane ?” Celestia pivoted in place, her eyes quickly switching from one image to the other.
One of them flinched when she faced him and a golden burst of magic instantly left her horn… only to hit the wall behind him. No luck this time…
“Why ?” Stone Mane asked. “Because you would defeat me. You’re stronger than me, princess, I know that. I won’t hurt you physically. Instead…”
A big flash of blue light illuminated Celestia’s room for a second. When the light faded, a dozen unicorn skeletons were standing next to the guard’s one.
“That makes thirteen of them,” Stone Mane said with an amused tone. “We’ll call that a necromancer’s dozen... My gift to you.”
“You sick monster…”
“Call me what you want, I don’t care.” He stomped his hoof on the ground and snarled. “I’m dead, princess. I have nothing left. Nothing ! Not even a piece of my old body ! There’s only one thing I care about now and that’s how much I can hurt you.”
Even hidden behind the steel helmet, Celestia could guess the wicked smile on his lips.
“So here is what will happen,” he declared calmly. “I will not touch a single hair of your royal fur. No… Instead, I will target your precious little ponies.”
The many Stone Manes all pointed at the skeletons standing immobile in front of Celestia’s bed.
“Here is what awaits them... Thirteen is an auspicious number, isn’t it ? I’ll stick with that. Mark your calendar, princess. Next year, on that same day, there will be thirteen others.”
Celestia grit her teeth at his announcement. She shot several more images, but did not find the real one.
“Thirteen ponies,” Stone Mane said, “picked at random, every year until you die. I will never show myself again, but I’m sure you won’t forget about me. Yes... Every year, you will remember me. For the rest of your days !”
The illusions vanished and left only the real Stone Mane, standing on Celestia’s balcony. He immediately addressed the skeletons in the room, giving them a very simple order : “kill the princess.”
Thirteen undead ponies, unable to disobey, all rushed at Celestia.
Thirteen bursts of magic scattered a thick layer of bones on the ground.
The princess rushed on the balcony, but Stone Mane was nowhere to be seen...
His voice echoed in the night, seemingly coming from every direction at the same time, another illusion meant to prevent her from finding him.
“Stallions, mares, foals... I’ll take anyone !” He cackled like a maniac, making Celestia grit her teeth and turn her head desperately all around, to try and spot him.
“Let everypony know, princess. Warn them ! Spread the word, in every big city and every tiny hamlet !”
His voice faded into the night, leaving his last words to hang in the air, echoing in princess Celestia’s ears like a lingering nightmare.
“Every year. Thirteen ponies !”
Author's Note
So... When I finished writing The cloud in the wind, I said I wouldn't write a sequel. That was what ? 10 days earlier ? But then I saw that EQD is having a halloween fic contest and I had this idea. I'll wiggle out of this one by saying that it's not really a sequel and more like a spin-off... thingy... But really, I think I'm unable to follow my own declarations. So I won't make anymore from now on. (Which means the next one will be in a week or so)
This aside, this story is my first attempt at a straight-up horror story. As usual, I'm completely unable to judge my own work, so I wouldn't be surprised if that came out as a comedy instead. At least it was a lot of fun to write... So, you tell me. Was that horrible or not ?
