Chapters What the hay is this place? That was the question circulating through twilight mind as she looked around in the alien worlds
She had no idea, it looked like Equestria, it felt like Equestria. Hay, it even smelled like Equestria. But still, certain things were off.
For a start there were what looked like blobs of jelly bouncing around, both of a blue, green and purple variant. Still, they didn't look too threatening.
But, she had to find the others. For some reason they weren't in the same place. If only she had gone through at the same time as them. But still, no time to waste. She could vaguely see some treetops in the distance, she supposed this was as good a place to start as any.
But she could hear, something.
She could hear whispers, sounded like arguing, and it could only be her friends. She ran up to greet them, happy to have some familiar comfort in an alien world, unlike last time.
Although, this should prove much too similar to last time.
The three creatures who obviously weren't her friends had similar build to humans, but a little bit smaller. Although that wasn't the weird -or scary- part.
All three of them was wearing different colors of armor, one of them was a dark blue with small white specs, he carried what was obviously a gun on his back, and his helmet had a threeway binocular. There was another one wearing armor that made him look like a turtle, and on closer inspection. It was made of turtle shells, he had a huge green axe on his back. The third was wearing armor that looked incredibly light but still sturdy. It was a clear icy color, and his weapon of choice seemed to be a huge green and purple sword.
Whatever they were, they weren't her friends. So she had no choice but to just leave, she went to turn.....
....and stood face to face with one of the green blobs from before.
She stood frozen for a while looking into the shifting form of this..... thing .
Suddenly the humans she had seen before sprung into action, apparently having better reactions than her. The blue one drew the gun from his back and pointed it straight at twilight, the green one swung the axe at the slime, cleaving it clean. The icy one had his sword at her throat, calling forth some deja vu about earlier.
The first one to speak was the dark blue, and to twilights surprise, she could understand what he said. No guttural speech, no weird words.
"Who, and what, are you? Ive never seen your like in all of Terraria."
Well, twilight thought, so much for no new words.
"Im twilight sparkle, a unicorn." The three of them visibly tensed at her words, seemingly afraid of the newcomer.
"You lie, unicorns from the hallow are white and taller than you!" The turtle warrior almost shouted.
Twilight frowned a little as she continued. "No, im a unicorn from Equestria. She said as she flapped her wings angrily.
All of them had lowered their weapons at her words, looking at each other with wide eyes. Finally they all sheathed their respective weapons and bowed. Seemingly out of nowhere.
"We excuse our unrighteous behavior mighty one." They said in unison. "We must escort you to canterlot immediately."
Twilight was happy and surprised to hear the name of her capital. But she was even more surprised at their sudden reaction. No one had knelt before her since her first initiation as an alicorn, so she was not quite used to it.
"O-of course, lead the way."
The three humans nodded and gathered in a circle around her, it seemed a bit claustrophobic for her, but she could handle it.
She looked at each of the humans, deciding that if they were to be her guardians then she might as well get to know them better. The turtle guy seemed the least intimidating, so he was first in this friendly interrogation.
"Excuse me." She said towards the turtle guy who promptly looked at her.
"Yes my lady."
"What is your name?"
He seemed a bit taken aback at the question, he bit his lip slightly before continuing
"Well, my name is Omnir my lady."
"Omnir huh? Well, what do you do? As in profession."
"Well, im a warrior."
Twilight had assumed as much, he was more muscular than the rest, judging by his size and his weapon of choice.
"Well what about you?" She asked the one in the icy armor.
He smiled cockily before speaking. "Well, my name is Doom, and im a fencer, although im a bit more....... Brutish than others in my profession."
She thought he was totally right. All the fencer ponies twilight had ever seen used incredibly nimble sword, nothing like the behemoth of a blade she had seen, or rather felt earlier.
"Well what about you." She said to the blue guy.
He clicked something on the side of his helmet, revealing his mouth that had been covered by a plate of blue metal seconds before, he turned the binoculars slightly and prepared to answer.
"My name is Yrimir, im a gunslinger."
He sure looked the part, twilight thought. The binoculars must be for aiming. He didn't seem reluctant to answer, quite the contrary. But it seemed as if he wanted to talk with her as little as possible.
"Look, we've arrived." Omnir said, a smile reaching from ear to ear. "My lady twilight, welcome to the wonderful castle of Canterlot."
This place looks even more regal than my canterlot, Twilight thought. And it seemed likely. The bricks of the houses seemed to glimmer with the colors of rare metals. And on closer inspection, some of the bricks were made of silver, copper, or even gold in a few houses. It made the entire city shine with happiness. Something twilight had not seen since the crystal empire.
But nothing in the town itself could have matched up to the keep the now entered.
Made of light blue bricks with an almost magical hue, huge regal doors of pricy mahogany created the entrance to a huge hall. Trophies of all kind lined the walls, paintings of all kind, one of a huge pool of fire, or intricate cave systems.
And a throne where their supposed king sat.
He was wearing regal golden armor with a golden crown atop his head, in his right hand he had a grass green claymore, seemingly absorbing the light around him, and making the plants grow stronger in its presence. By his left hand sat a small purple dragon. Seemingly completely fine. And quite happy.
"Spike!"She yelled as she charged forward for her small dragon friend.
"Twilight?" The small dragon boy said, looking for the source of the words and smiling as his eyes caught onto his friend and mentor. "Twilight!" He yelled once he saw her, he jumped down from the throne and ran ahead to hug his big sister.
She embraced him and nuzzled him carefully. "I was so afraid something might've happened."
"Nah, I'm fine, these guys stitched me back together, not... Literally, of course."
"Guardsmen, might i ask what this most peculiar creature is? She bears some resemblance to a unicorn, yet she is far too tiny to be on of those."
Twilight looked up from her dragon assistant. Finding the relentless glare of their king to be quite uncomfortable. And when she looked up at him she wasn't uncomfortable any longer.
She was downright terrified.
The kings previous golden armor had been replaced with armor that looked to be made of darkened oak wood. The same color as the possessed everfree trees. His eyes were a torrent of green that scorched your eyes as if you had looked into the sun itself. The sword in his hand was no longer green and calming. But rather a twisting red mess dripping with blood. The handle looked to be made of spinal columns. And gone was his crown, instead, a glowing pumpkin with weird yellow eyes loomed above him, pulling his strings.
Twilight snapped out of it when she heard Omnir talk again.
"My king, we found her on our scouting route. She claims to be a unicorn from Equestria."
The kings eyes widened, he moved forward, resting his arms on his knees.
"You don't mean to tell me......."
"Yes my lord." This time doom answered, seeming a lot more professional than when twilight had first spoken with him. "We believe she is the one."
The king first sat back in his chair, he brought a hand up and rubbed his eyes, concentrating. Twilight couldn't believe the others ignorance, could they not see what she saw. The king radiated pure evil.
"Unfortunately, it is not for me to decide whether to trust the newcomer. You will have to take him to my brother, you know where to find him."
"Yes my lord." This time Yrimir replied. "We will escort her to Diablo immediately."
Omnir gestured for twilight to follow, he smiled carefully at her and she got up. She levitated spike onto her back and then they were off.
"Omnir, can i ask you a question?"
He turned his head, still smiling. "Youve already asked me a question once today, and i agreed to answer, it shall be no different this time. What troubles you my lady?"
"No.... Wait, first of i have a request. I want you all to call me twilight instead of my lady or other such titles. Just twillight, ok?"
All three of them nodded, taken aback a bit by the odd request, but nevertheless they complied.
"Now, the question. What is the kings name?"
"The kings name is moonshadow, twilight." Once again doom answered. Did these three guys alternate between answering? Twilight thought. She nodded carefully and dreaded the next question she was about to ask.
"Does he have a brother?"
"He doesn't. Diablo is only his step brother." Yrimir said. Okay, so they do alternate between answering, nice to know. Twilight calmly sighed, careful not to show her friends her fear of their king.
"He has a sister."
At that moment twilight wanted to go underground and never come out. She had no interest in fighting another power mad royalty gone berserk villain. Especially not without her friends help.
"Although, his sister is less influential. She doesn't really do.... Well, anything. I've seen her once back when we first became the royal hunting party, but never after that." Yrimir said, having seen the look of horror on twilights face. "So i dont think shell rebel or anything."
Twilight didn't feel comforted at all, the fact that she might have to fight another villain that she knew next to nothing about wasn't exactly calming. A princess, or in this case the sister of a king, rebelling was the least of her problems.
"Well, were done with the smalltalk guys. We've arrived."
To everyone else this door would have seemed no different than all the others in the castle. Big, made of mahogany, had those awful doorknobs. But twilight could sense immense arcane power practically radiating from beyond that door. Whomever was in there, he knew what he was doing.
"I am sorry twilight and my lord spike, but we are not allowed to step into Diablos chambers. Hell, he would incinerate us if we did."
Twilight swallowed a lump in her throat, if three warriors directly under the kings orders weren't allowed to enter, then why would a complete stranger be allowed to.
"Dont worry twilight." Spike cooed from her back. "Ive already met him, he's not so bad. A little..... Eccentric, but not so bad."
All this didnt really convince twilight all that much, but as she brought her hoof up to the doorknob she asked spike another thing that had been plaguing her mind in about 45 seconds.
"What the hay, is hell?"
"No idea twilight."
Chapter 3: the prophecy (part 2)
The doors swung open as a gust if wind sweeped out. It had a weird smell to it, at the same time encouraging stepping further into the sanctum, but somehow warning twilight of the dangers that loomed inside.
"I really don't like this spike." Twilight said with as much calm as she could muster. The shadows that seemed to twitch slightly even when she didn't move certainly didn't help.
"Don't worry twilight, I'm certain nothing bad is gonna happen." Spike assured her.
Thats it, twilight thought to herself. He's jinxed it.
As she walked down the corridors she could not stop thinking about her friends. What had happened to applejack? What about rainbow dash? Had anypony else gone through the portal? And if they had, were had they ended up?
Her thoughts however were cut short when she collided with a door. This one not being mahogany, rather some soot grey wood that twilight had never seen before. It seemed to completely..... Dead, as if it had never tasted pure water or even sunlight.
The longer they ventured in the more apparent this Diablos contempt for all things living became. His walls, unlike those of the throne room, Contained paintings of horrifying places. One specific one caught twilights eye. Being a picture of a bleak landscape with purple trees and dark grey stone. Whatever that place was, twilight did not want to go there.
She opened the dark greying door.
And was met with a sight nopony should have to experience.
The room she stepped into bore similarities to the other throne room, it was long, had banners in it, and paintings as well as a throne. But the similarities ended there. The banners resembled infernos, skulls, even the pictures were morbid, once again twilight caught sight of the weird purple landscape she had seen before. But this time she got a better look at its inhabitants, weird wormlike creatures and what looked to be floating parasites feasting on the remains of humans. She bit her lower lip as she looked around, spotting even more horrific sights that only confirmed this guys insanity. Spike on the other hand, was totally calm, as if he had seen it all before.
And then twilight met his gaze.
He was sitting atop a throne, just like moonshadow had. But this was no gold throne. Rather the throne looked to be made of bones, ribcages provided the seat, what looked to be a spine served as the handles. And serving as the crown jewel, a gigantic dragon skull loomed over the person currently sitting.
He wore armor, just like the rest of her newfound friends. But unlike theirs which looked sturdy and protective. His looked to be made of mist. It seemed to move at its own accord, creating he illusion of a living armor. Or, as twilight thought to herself, just living armor.
Although the most terrifying part was his face, or the lack there of.
A cowl hid his head from onlookers, shrouding his entire face in an unbreakable darkness, it seemed to twilight as if his face was a never ending abyss.
And then the never ending abyss was torn apart.
A pair of slanted purple spots appeared on his face, they instantly locked onto twilight. Suddenly she could feel it. If the previous king -moonshadow- had radiated evil. Then This mans malice was omnipresent, it was entangling. She suddenly felt as if everything was trying to kill her, as if everything in the room wanted her head on a silver platter. She could see the banners moving towards her, becoming longer, like snakes readying to snap the neck of an enemy. She could see the weird parasite creatures floating out of the pictures, making strange clicking noises and slurping at the delight of their new meal. But suddenly a voice broke the terrible nightmare.
"Umm, twilight, are you alright?"
She followed spikes voice, and found herself standing in the same room, with the same creepy scenery, staring into those slanted purple eyes. Nothing of what just happened had happened. She wanted to sigh out of relief but was still paralyzed by those entrancing eyes.
Finally the onlooker decided to stop toying with her and he rose from his chair. He pulled out a staff with a purple triangle on the tip, he pointed it straight at her, daring her to do do anything he didn't permit.
"Who are you?" His voice boomed, making the walls tremble slightly. "And why do you invade my sanctum?" While asking the second question he seemed to get more and more angry.
"I-i-i-i-i." Twilight stuttered incomprehensibly, not doing too well with the whole speaking thing when faced with lurking death.
"You what?" He asked mockingly. "Not only does my incompetent brother send me an unknown creature, but one who doesn't know basic speech. Laughable." He seemed to be getting more and more annoyed at twilights presence. Still that wasn't stopping her from being insulted at his mockery.
"I am twilight sparkle, a unicorn from equestria. I was sent here by your brother because i am 'the one' or something like that."
"Well why didn't you say so?"
Suddenly the whole room changed, the pictures changed from the grotesque images of death and bleak lands, to a land that showed colorful trees, a beautiful landscape, and marvelous creatures. The banners changed from skulls and infernos to banners with gryphons and stars. The throne changed from a mess of bones to a beautiful platinum throne with a dragon wrapping around the edges and corners, in what looked to be a beautiful dance.
Nothing changed about the one on the throne, except his eyes changed from purple to a light blue.
But he no longer radiated evil, there was still an omnipresence, but it felt warm, and light instead of dark edgy and hollow. It truly felt as if she was now in the crystal empire again.
Finally the onlooker spoke, this time his voice was calm and kind. "Greetings twilight sparkle. I am high sorcerer Diablo. I am sorry for the rough greeting, but my brother told me you were coming, so i had to make sure you were the right one." He chuckled slightly, making the ghostly armor bounce a little shifting form before repairing itself.
"What do you mean the right one? Ive heard all these new terms in less than an hour, but i understand none of them."
He laughed a little again, seemingly highly entertained by twilights confusion. "Of course twilight sparkle, if you would please follow me." He walked down from his throne and towards a large piece of cloth. How did i not notice that before? Twilight thought to herself.
He pointed the wand twilight had seen earlier at one of the strings holding the cloth piece. When he had adjusted his aim, a concentrated beam of light purple energy shot out of it, severing the piece of string and ricocheting off the wall and hitting the other one.
Revealing a picture of a lavender alicorn with a purple dragon flying around her, she was clad in white and golden armor and was wielding a sword of the same color scheme. At her side was two other ponies, one of them was wearing a hat fit for a cowpony, holding a rifle, and the other one had hair the color of the rainbow, she was holding a crossbow.
Its showed her and her two friends.
"What.... Is that?" She asked, eyes wide and mouth agape.
Diablo chuckled again, he seemed easy to entertain. "A picture painted long ago by a stranger who came to our lands in a similar fashion to what you went through. He was old, aeons old, he wore blue robes with a matching blue hat, a long white beard. But the weirdest part was the bells, definitely the bells."
"Star swirl the bearded." Twilight whispered, making sure Diablo heard none of what she said. "He's been here?"
"It would appear so." Diablo said, apparently having heard everything she had said. "He was the first to defeat the wall of flesh."
"The wall of what.....?
"The wall of flesh, the creature that for the longest had plagued our world. It is a terrible being, born in hell, raised in hell, slain in hell. By the one you call star swirl."
Twilight was still baffled, star swirl the bearded, her greatest hero of all time had once travelled to this distant world. And he had recorded none of it? Why not? Why would he keep this place a secret?
"But killing it caused more grief than joy, unfortunately."
"What do you mean by that?"
His eyes grew wider, he was obviously not a fan of what was about to happen.
"Well, if i am to explain twilight i will have to...... Change the scenery, if you will."
Now she realized why he seemed so uncomfortable, he had to recreate the scary decor twilight had seen when she first stepped in. But, as she reminded herself, sacrifices would have to be made if she was to save her friends.
"Do it, we need to hurry."
He nodded and looked away, his hand reached towards the ceiling and he clenched his fist, his ghostly armor started twisting and turning and running up along into the ceiling, it started coating the walls, covering everything, from the throne to the banners to the pictures.
And then it retreated back to him.
Once again the room was devoid of life, the skull and inferno banners, the creepy pictures, the bone throne. Everything was the same as when twilight had first entered.
And so was his eyes. Having changed from their calm light blue color into the horrendous torrent of purple she had seen before.
"If we are to find your friends, i must first tell you of our world." Once again his voice seemed to come from inside of her, as if he talked from within her head.
He walked towards the picture of the weird purple land, his footsteps creating large thumps, breaking the silence within the halls of the dead.
"This." He reached a hand up to touch the picture. "Is the corruption, an evil land, housing terrible beings, as well as terrarians." His hand tore slightly into the painting as he said this. "If your friends are anywhere, they are there."
The creepy scenery lifted, bringing twilight back to Diablos usual throne room, she breathed out air she didn't even now she had been holding in. The weight of the dark presence now lifted from her shoulders she felt much better.
"So, twilight sparkle, what are your plans?"
For twilight there was no doubt. "Well, I'm heading in there to rescue my friends of course."
His now again light blue specs frowned slightly (at least that was what twilight assumed he was doing.) "you are not yet ready to face the corruption twilight, i am sorry."
Twilight's eyes widened as she heard Diablos words, her throat became dry and tears welled up in her eyes. "Well what do you propose i do then?!"
"Rest, and take this."
In his hand was now a small mirror, but weirdly enough, twilight could not see her reflection in it.
"What is this?"
"What it is, is not important. But if you're ever lost or in danger, channel your magic into it, and it shall save your life."
She looked down at the priced possession, it looked to be made of silver, and there were even some small jewels encased in the sides.
"What can i do to repay your for this?"
His eyes narrowed ever so slightly, not in irritation, but rather in kindness. "Go and rest, you can stay in my library."
"You have a library?" Twilight asked enthusiastically.
He chuckled at twilight obvious interest. "Yes, but i do propose that you wait with your reading. For now you must sleep, you will have to be awake for tomorrow."
Twilight narrowed her face in a matter displaying utter seriousness. "You're right, i cant be tired if I'm gonna be saving my friends."
Again Diablo chuckled, it seemed to be an addiction he had. "Oh no dear twilight, you will have to be awake for so much more than just saving you friends.... So much more."
Chapter 4: by the gods
In our gods we trust, for blemishing them causes death.
Twilight awoke abruptly from her peaceful slumber when she heard faint cries from outside the castle. She went from her makeshift bed to one of the windows, trying to find the source of the voices.
She opened the windows, and gasped slightly as a figure clad in blue swooped overhead, his wings lighted up the night sky, and in the light emitted by the flaming wings she could see two guns in the fliers hands. Yrimir, but why was he up so late?
Suddenly she heard a familiar voice calling from bellow.
"The shades have reached the northern walls!" Omnir shouted. Yrimir swooped downwards, firing volleys of bullets at the ground.
Twilight folded out her wings, leaping out the window and swooping down towards where she had heard Omnirs voice. She found the large man on the city walls yelling at a range of soldiers standing next to him. Most of them holding bows and firing towards the fields around the city.
"Omnir, what is happening? Why are the soldiers firing at air?"
Omnir looked up, jumping slightly as he saw twilight flying towards him, he reached his hand up and waved at her, encouraging her to land.
"Greetings twilight sparkle, what brings you down here at such a late hour?" He asked worried.
"The sounds, and the fact that the guards are firing towards air. Is this training or something?"
He frowned slightly and he closed his eyes for a few seconds before continuing.
"No, not exactly, but you'll see in a moment." He raised his hand, and all the archers pulled their bowstrings back, the fiery arrows nocked, aiming into the air. He clenched his fist, and the archers drew the bowstrings even further back, he let his hand drop, and all the arrows surged through the air, landing about 50 feet away from the walls.
Revealing horrors beyond belief.
The creatures she had seen earlier on the pictures of 'the corruption' now flew above an army of terrarians clad in purple armor with either axes, swords, clubs, or bows of similar color. Every single one of them had a maniacal look in their eyes, they licked their lips, anticipating the slaughter there was to come. each of them wore a necklace with a moon on it. In truth it looked a lot like luna's cutie mark, but somehow more ominous.
"Do you now understand why we are here?"
Twilight nodded slowly. "Uh huh." She said, confirming that she now understood the level of threat they were under. Yet, one question nagged her.
"Why aren't they attacking?"
"They're waiting for someone.... Special, to show up."
Twilight really didn't understand why he was being so vague, she couldn't see anyone missing, Yrimir was flying overhead, Omnir was guiding the soldiers here in front, and Doom was leading the citizen towards safety.
All three of them were here.
Then it boomed, assaulting the ears as well as the mind, vortexes of pain. Caused by one single word.
"DIE!" Brother, and stepbrother cried as they leaped from the rooftops, landing perfectly in front of the enemy. Moonshadow making one swift move, slicing the front row of soldiers and sending a beam of green energy into the rest.
Diablo had pulled a cyan book out from... Somewhere, and was busy throwing orbs of the same color around, and whenever they got in range they sent a ray towards any of the soldiers in range.
"The heretics have arrived, kill them in the name of the eaters brothers." Shouted their supposed leader. He, in contrast to the others, was wearing armor the same colour as Yrimir's, although his helm had a pair of goggles instead of Yrimirs binoculars. Resting on his shoulder he had what looked to be a rifle, but it had no scope, and there was a small flame at the tip.
Still, the brothers carved through the enemies as if they were butter, ripping them to shreds, leaving pools of blood on the before nice and grassy fields.
"Why are the soldiers even here?" Twilight asked, cocky smile now reaching from one ear to another. "Diablo and Moonshadow are doing exceptionally."
Omnir frowned, looking down. "It only gets worse."
"What do you mean by that?"
Immediately she got her answer.
The moon reached its apex, it was in the middle of the sky and shone down on all, and that was the moment when it turned around. The amulets of the shades started glowing, slowly encompassing them in a silvery light. Their armor started to expand as they hunched over, almost snapping at its joints. Hair started growing all over their bodies, making the armor creak and wince. Their teeth became longer, fanglike. Their noses forming together with their lower jaw and becoming wider. Their eyes became smaller, and all red. Their feet and hands lost thumbs, but grew claws.
Twilight wanted to scream. But who can scream when faced with utter terror.
The half wolf, half men lunged at Diablo and Moon, desperate to draw blood. But whereas before the two brothers were carving through them sustaining no injuries. This time they got hit. A lot.
Omnir finally decided to step in. "Royal guard, CHARGE!" He yelled with all power and raw revenge. The terrarians, clad in their gold, silver, or iron armor charged at the approaching horde. Yelling at the top of their lungs, threats, profanities, whatever was on their mind as they charged to save their royal family. Some drew swords, other were using mallets, some was even charging in with axes, although they were a minority.
Doom had at last join the fight, swinging the gigantic breaker blade around as he alongside his fellow soldiers yelled threats at the assaulting werewolves. In the distance she saw both Diablo and moon being dragged towards the walls. She hurried down to the gate to help get them in.
"Quickly, open the gate, Diablo and Moonshadow are on their way in."
The guard nodded hastily as he started turning the wheel. The gate slowly rose as Diablo, moonshadow and their escorts appeared from the smoke. Once they were dragged in twilight hurried to Diablo first. She gasped as she saw his wounds, his armor had been torn in several places, bite marks were everywhere, alongside jabs of claws.
"Diablo, moon, are you both alright?"
Diablo looked up at her with those calm light blue eyes. He grasped the book he had been holding a little tighter. He was obviously in pain, but he still had enough power to talk.
"Thats a cute name for my brother you've made there twilight, ill have to remember that."
Twilight wiped a tear away she hadn't even realized was there.
"I'll freaking kill you if you start calling me 'moon', diablo."
Moonshadow didn't sound angry, just tired. And to be honest he sounded happy, and he was smiling, perhaps he even liked the nickname.
But unfortunately the peaceful moment fot an abrupt end when they heard the guards yell.
"The shades have breached the walls, the shades have bre-*hurgh*!"
As they heard the warning, three of the werewolves ran through the almost closed gate. They encircled the trio and their guards as they eyed them hungrily.
"Wonderful, the heretics, two snacks, and another one of those weird creatures." He chuckled. "The master will be pleased."
Twilight blinked. Another one? Did they have rainbow or applejack?
"Do you have one of my friends?" She asked carefully.
"Ooh." One of them whistled. "This one talks." One of the others were quick to continue. "But master will make her scream, just like the other."
Were they talking about the guy in the blue armor? She thought, no matter, i would have to beat them into submission if i wanted to find out.
She shot a beam of energy at one of the werewolves. Slamming into his chest and knocking him into the walls, rendering him unconscious. The grins of the two other combatants diappeared instantly, they snarled at the unicorn, angered at the loss of their comrad.
One of them jumped at her, but was knocked off course by the guard who charged into him, sword first. Although it only slowed her adversary down. The werewolf slammed his paw into the guard, sending him careening straight into one of the houses, shaking it slightly.
The werewolf pulled the sword out and howled as the blood started flowing from the gaping wound. His liver must have been hit, twilight thought as she examined the wound.
The second one jumped at her in a similar fashion, but this time she was prepared. She formed an ethereal spear at the tip of her horn and guided it towards were his throat was going to hit.
One clean stab later and there was only one more werewolf to deal with.
The last one bellowed something vaguely intelligible before charging at her, at least as much charging he could do with a wound the size of twilights hoof in his side.
Twilight focused on the sword that had been dropped mere seconds ago, her aura encompassed the handle, making sure that her aura did not reach the blade.
Both sword and werewolf flew towards her, the werewolf making desperate howls of pain as the muscles strained around his wound. She placed the sword in front of her, just in time to impale the furry giant. He looked at her with eyes encompassed entirely by terror. He was afraid.
"I may not have got you." He whispered, his voice not much more than a growl. "But the Eater certainly will."
He breathed out, blood flowing from his mouth and onto twilight, she wanted to scream, but her throat ached too much for any sound to come out, she wanted to move him, but her limbs were frozen.
As a drop or his landed on her muzzle she couldn't contain it anymore. She opened her mouth and screamed, her ears felt like they were being ripped to shreds. Finally she passed out, the whole world went black as she felt the weight lift from her body, and the sound of an authoritative yet pleasant voice drifted her off to slumber.
"Its alright." It said. "You're safe."
Chapter 6: to distant lands
"Where are we headed?"
Twilight hadn't exactly been comforted by Diablos weird demeanour, she had seen him angry, happy, excited. But never had she seen him give up. He had seemed to have lost all connection with reality once twilight had mentioned Wilhelm.
"To the forge," Omnir said, looking much more worried than usual, "if you really are heading into the corruption," he shuddered slightly when mentioning the weird land, "then you'll need to be better equipped than you currently are."
This caused twilight to frown slightly, "okay, equipped with what exactly?"
He looked at her as if she was a complete idiot. Which in his eyes, as of right now, she was.
"Armour, weapons, plain means of defending yourself." He said, still sounding worried, "if you don't have that, then the corruption will chew you up and spit you out."
Twilight swallowed a lump in her throat she didn't even know had built up. Suddenly, means of defence sounded like an excellent idea,
"What did he mean by saying meteor?" Twilight said, she had always known meteors as being large space rocks, not armor.
"I think he should explain that."
They had arrived
Twilight could immediately feel the change of temperature when the door was opened, the walls were lined with racks upon racks of weapons and armour. The ceiling was a stark dark purple colour, which twilight was informed by Omnir was obsidian.
She could hear sounds of metal against metal, and the sound of fire being put out. It came from a corridor to the left.
"Don't mention Yrimir." Omnir said. Right after he uttered the name of the ranger the sound of thunderclaps became higher, as if the one who swung the hammer had gotten angrier just from the names mere presence.
"I can hear why," Twilight said, rubbing her ears lightly with one hoof, it felt as if her ears were about to explode.
They turned down the corridor
And twilight saw the largest terrarian yet.
He must've been a full three meters tall, if not more. His head was awfully close to hitting the chandeliers hanging from above. Every time he swung his arm upwards the hammer hit the obsidian ceiling, leaving a small dent in the incredibly hard volcanic stone.
so that was why they chose a ceiling this expensive. twilight thought to herself.
"Forgemaster Mallet," Omnir started, making the large man stop mid swing.
"This had better be important Omnir, has Yrimir finally decided to let go of his auto hammer?" The large mans voice was incredibly low pitched, and it sounded rock hard, as if his words alone could smash men into broken bones.
"I'm afraid not Mallet, this is a matter of much greater importance."
Twilight blushed slightly at her being much greater importance, never before had such attention been afforded her. Albeit attention that entailed getting her prepared for what many judged a suicide mission.
"What could possibly be of greater importance? I'm working, if you haven't noticed." The smith had lowered his arm, but only to continue hitting the metal construction, an anvil , twilight thought to herself.
"Well first of, there's a new recruit that needs armour, and possibly some special equipment." Omnir said, smiling knowingly this time.
Mallet had once again stopped mid swing, his arm now hanging limply down to the side, looking almost as hopeless as Diablo had.
As it turned out, that was merely an illusion
Mallet turned around, dropping his hammer onto the anvil, landing with an audible *clang.* his big bushy beard was lit up in a smile, which quickly turned into a frown when he saw a lavender pony instead of a human. But the frown quickly turned back into the friendly smile she had seen before
"Hello mi'lady, my name is Forgemaster Mallet," he said proudly, "but you can call me Mallet, if you wish." The Goliath chuckled slightly at his brilliant introduction, leaving twilight and Omnir to shake their heads in disapproval.
"Nice to meet you," twilight said, smiling carefully at the giant, "now, I was told I needed some armor?"
The giant smiled even wider as she said this, "and special equipment mi'lady, don't forget the special equipment."
"Of course not," Omnir butted in, making Mallets smile falter somewhat, "Twilight, what is your special talent?"
did they have cutie marks as well? twilight wondered as she answered, "magic."
"Ahh," Mallet said, sounding as excited as a foal on hearths warming eve, "meteor or jungle?"
Twilight blinked twice as she was asked the weird question. To her, being asked meteor or jungle was like asking how she wanted to die the most.
Instead of saying that, she said the next best thing, "what?"
The giant sighed exasperated, "what kind of armor, meteor or jungle?"
Omnir leaned in, trying to be as careful as possible, "take meteor."
Mallet obviously hadn't noticed Omnirs guidance, or maybe he just didn't care, but Twilight wasn't about to throw away an experienced soldiers guidance.
"Jungle."
The soldier whose choice she had purposely ignored face palmed, being quite baffled as to why she would make that choice. Mallet however was overflowing with glee.
"Amazing choice, so are you going with a blade of grass or the chakram?"
Once again a weird choice, but this time she knew what she needed to do.
"The chakram."
She turned to Omnir who nodded approvingly, apparently she had chosen well. In blank contrast to before.
"Also and excellent choice," Mallet seemed to be getting happier and happier with each passing word, "now, where exactly would a beautiful....... Mare, as yerself be going to need such equipment?"
Twilight looked down, knowing what Mallets reaction would be.
"She's going to the corruption."
Omnir had thankfully butted in and saved her, yet that didn't stop Mallets reaction from kicking in.
And it was quite explosive.
"No, no, NO!" He had picked his hammer back up and stared straight at the unicorn, "I'm not going to aid anyone in going there. None more shall be lost to that wretched place!"
His voice had reached extraordinary levels, making the walls shake slightly. Small lava falls had started forming on the side of the walls, they having cracked slightly in some places.
"Get out of here, both of you!" He turned back to the anvil, slamming the hammer down even harder than before, "and stay out."
"What happened?"
Twilight had been shocked by Mallets sudden change of behavior, it seemed as if the word corruption turned him into a completely different person. The before kind and generous man suddenly turning into a screaming barbarian.
Omnir sighed, he suddenly found the marble floor on which they walked on very interesting.
"What happened?" Twilight asked, this time sounding more stern than before.
Omnir sighed again, but he knew she deserved an answer, "Mallet has lost his son to the shades."
Twilight recoiled slightly, looking at the ground in a similar fashion to Omnir, "I had no idea......."
"And no one expected you to," the soldier assured her, "he will come around eventually, and if he doesn't, then Diablo is gonna talk some sense into him."
Twilight could easily imagine Diablo making Mallet quiver in fear, somehow the archmage seemed much more frightening than a whole platoon of changelings.
"What am I gonna do now?" She asked, she had no armor, no weapons, only her magic would do her any good. Twilight was no soldier, but she saw how many shades escaped from the battle, those alone could rip her to shreds within minutes.
"Say goodbye," Omnir said, shrugging lightly, "if you still plan on going that is."
Twilight could hear the small tint of hope in his voice. He really wanted her not to go.
But this was about applejacks safety.
"I'm going, no questions asked."
Omnir sighed, for the third or fourth time that day, "somehow I knew you were going to say that."
"Lady Twilight."
The library was still twilights favored resting place, it brought her an immense sense of calm. Almost as if the entire place was a living breathing thing, enhancing her focus.
But that didn't mean she liked being interrupted.
"Yes?" She said, trying her best not to sound annoyed.
A guard in silvery armor stepped in, his face was largely concealed by the mask, so twilight couldn't identify his face.
"The Forgemaster has asked to see you."
Twilight jumped from diablos book, she had taken the time to read through it, finding it to be only about one spell, called Waterbolt. She had read through it and practiced, preparing for the journey ahead, she thought she was going to need every single advantage she could get her hooves on.
"Understood." She said, skipping past the stonified guard.
She found that the smith was actually sitting on a bench in the hallway.
"Please, take a seat mi'lady." He said indicating a hand at the opposite bench, before realizing the mistake, although he said nothing of it, twilight knew he regretted the offer.
"I'm fine Mallet, thank you." She said, smiling at the huge man who now looked so very small when sitting down.
He was shifting slightly, as if what he was about to say troubled him quite a bit.
"Mi'lady, first of all, I'd like to excuse for me outburst, it was uncalled for, and I regret it." He finally said.
"Thank you Mallet, its fine," she had of course been scared i death but there was no reason for him to know that.
"And the second thing is..... I'd like to explain the reason for said outburst," he said afterwards.
"Please, it's been bugging me the whole day," twilight said, her eyes crossing over slightly as she remembered her earlier brainstorm.
"I lost my son in one of their attacks."
Twilight has stopped everything, her face portrayed shock and pity, and some remorse.
"They took him, it wasn't enough for them to kill him, but they were gonna offer him to that damned god of theirs."
"The eater of worlds?" Twilight asked, dreading the answer.
"The same," he said, chin resting on his hand in a relaxed position.
"But what does that have to do with me traveling there?" Twilight asked.
He sighed, in a manner similar to that of Omnir, and she wondered if the two men were family.
"When me lad was first captured, he wasn't hidin like most civilians under an attack, he was fighting," Mallet paused for a second to breath, "with weapons and armor made by me."
Twilight nodded, she understood it better now.
"So ya see mi'lady, if you were to go in there, and die, I'll have repeated my mistake. So therefore, I have two pleads." The giant man ended his monologue.
Twilight nodded, preparing to answer.
"The first plea, is for you to look for my son, anything, bones, a corpse, his ashes, or if I'm lucky his live and well being."
Twilight nodded at the blacksmith, this was something she was willing to do for him.
"The second one, on the other hand, is more personal."
Twilights muscles tensed slightly at his words, what now?
"Don't die." And with those words he handed her the armor, it was a slick green colour with vines and plant life all over, in the middle lay a iron binding with vines and thorns hanging off of it.
She took the armour and the chakram in a telekinetic bond.
"I'll make sure not to."
This was going to be a good harvest.
Applejack was looking over the orchard, looking at this years ripe and red apple trees. Wondering to herself wether or not the price on apples would rise or drop before she and mack could get bucking 'em
Her stream of thoughts were abruptly ended as she spotted applebloom, scootaloo, and sweetie belle wavering through the trees, scootaloo having the two others in a small wagon behind her scooter.
"C'mon girls, hav'nt i told y'all i didn't wantcha to ride the scooter through the orchard? You might get seriously hurt."
She didn't even have time to react to what happened next, there was a huge burst of wind, and a sound of paper being torn, although much louder. The Cmc were knocked off their hooves as they held onto any nearby trees. It was almost like dash's sonic rainboom.
And just to complete the freaky image, a wave of dark purple light washed over the hillside, running through the trees but not damaging them.
Applejack got to her hooves once the storm had laid down, nothing seemed to have happened, the apples were still on the trees, the Cmc were still safe thanks celestia. But what had caused this.
As far as she knew, rainbow and twillight was off on flight training, so magic involving purple from her was out of the question.
"I guess i should probably get twi." She told herself as she ran off towards the hills.
"Cmon twillight, you have to fly faster."
Twillight had been absolutely overjoyed when rainbow had offered to help her with flight training. Finally she could get to use those big feather dusters for something useful. And, and she had so gleefully thought on her way to the fields, rainbow was -or so she claimed- the greatest flier in all of equestria.
But being a professional did not equal being a good teacher. Rainbow had first wanted twillight to fly through some hoops, which had resulted in more than a few bruises. The words rainbow used were completely alien to twillight (what the hay was quivisical wing capacity supposed to mean?) and when she didn't use the words of a wonderbolt she relied on twillight to just fly without further instruction.
So when applejack came over to interrupt the training, twillight was more than happy to take a break to speak with her friend.
What was more unfortunate was the news.
"Sup Aj, whats wrong?" Rainbow asked casually.
Applejack was wheezing and coughing, she had obviously been running the entire way from sweet apple acres, an impressive feat in itself.
"Big wave of air, purple wave of light, big explosion, sweet apple acres, celestia." She quickly gasped before going to sleepy town.
Twillight looked up at rainbow who quickly nodded. She flew off in the direction of ponyville, or more specifically the library at which twillight lived. She burst through the door, finding spike in the middle of sleeping.
She poked him slightly, he first glipped with his eyes a few times before the real reaction came.
"WAAH. Im worry twillight, i overslept, dont worry, ill work extra hard i- oh, its you dash."
"Yeah, twillight is in need of you spike, she has to send a message."
"Yeah, yeah. Let me grab the quill and paper."
Spike waddled sleepily towards the table, hitting his head on the edge. Although he didn't even seem to notice. Dragon scales are harder than i thought, rainbow thought to herself.
"Ive got the things, ill get going."
"Nope."
"What do you mean nope rainbow? I have to find twillight."
As if that was her cue rainbow dropped down and grabbed him, placed him on her back and zoomed off. Spike had to hold his grip tightly not to fall off. At one point his claw found grip, although the fact that he had gripped onto rainbows mane made his pilot quite angry.
"Spike, thats my mane for luna's sake."
"I know, but its the only place i can hold onto."
Soon after they landed outside sweet apple acres. Both twillight and a sleeping applejack were standing in front of the main building, twillight was pathetically waving at them to land. Dash landed in front of them kicking up some dust and pebbles. Most of it landing on applejack who was still drooling onto the ground.
"Is she okay?" Spike asked as he jumped off rainbow's back, walking over and placing a claw were her pulse could be felt.
"Yes spike, shes apparently just tired."
As if applejack had been programmed to react to words, her eyelids slid open in a matter of heartbeats. She jumped off the ground and looked wildly around. Finally her eyes locked on twillight.
"Twi, its good ah found'cha, theres some mumbo jumbo magic going on behind our barn, we gotta ....... Get.......... There!"
Applejack finally took some time to survey her surroundings, and decided that slapping herself in the face was a good idea afterwards.
"Relax applejack, whats wrong?"
"Well, ya see twi, i was standin' in m'ah own thoughts when suddenly some wave of purple light washed over m'ah apple trees. Luckily none of em got damaged, but it was scary beyond belief."
Twillight had grown increasingly worried as applejack went on, it didn't seem like natural unicorn magic to her. Nor like anything either discord or sombra could have created.
"Wouldnt an idea be to check were this...... Light, came from?" Spike cued in.
"Good idea spike, jump up."
"No thank you twillight, ive had more than enough flying for today, thank you very much rainbow."
Rainbow just coughed once spike started his accusation, although the word coward was very easily heard beneath said cough.
They started walking towards the hills overlooking sweet apple acres. The orchard itself going up one of those hills. Like the apple trees had become sentient and decided to climb a mountain.
Although what the three mares found was unexpected and not at all welcome.
It seemed to be a giant scar in the scenery. It looked like a piece of torn paper, except the hole showed nothing except total blackness. There was nothing there except a torrent of darkness, seemingly trying to swallow the entire scenery.
Except when a hoof stepped through the torrent.
At first the three were calmed by the sight of familiar anatomy, but that changed when the rest of the creature stepped through. The thing whose hoof had stepped through the "portal" mere seconds ago was the size of princess celestia if not taller, but the similarities ended there. It wore armor with an eerie contrast of black and dark purple, a helmet with a curved horn adorned its head, although twillight suspected, it was not meant for magic, but for something more gruesome. But the worst was its eyes, glowing a sickly green colour that shifted constantly.
But its master looked possibly even more threatening.
He wore the same colour armor, although his had outlines of darkened orange. The armor had runes carved into it that glowed the same colour orange that the outlines did. But the weirdest part was his head.
Or rather the lack there of.
His head was not atop his shoulders like it should be, but rather the stranger was carrying a grinning pumpkin under his.... What were those even called? Spike had chosen to name his forelegs "arms," and these looked alike enough to be the same deal. The pumpkin head however, like the rest or the stranger, remained completely immobilized, as if an electric current had zapped all his nerve endings.
At last applejack decided she needed answers. "Hey, who're you, and what're you doing here on apple family property.
Suddenly the strangers body twitched and he let the pumpkin go. It rolled merrily down the hill and landed in a small ditch at the bottom. And that would have been fine and dandy, if the head hadn't suddenly started levitating. It was glowing now, just like the runes had, and was floating towards the fillies and their dragon companion. It eyed each of them searchingly, and soon it just floated in midair.
Seemingly, this was the cue for the body of this duo, because the horse kicked into a leap and landed right next to the floating head, the strangers hand grabbed the pumpkin and inserted it onto the place where his neck should have been. As he did, a loud noise that sounded like someone snapped a bone filled the entire hillside.
As he let go of his supposed head he let go of a sigh. "Ahh, it has been so long since i have last been at full power."
The stranger's voice sounded heavy and droning, as if he hadn't used it in years.
He eyed the three fillies and the dragon with an ever growing amusement in his hollow and fiery eyes.
"Tell me, unicorns, where are we? I do not recognize this part of Terraria.
"Wh-who are you?" Twillight managed to croak before her voice cracked.
His display of misunderstanding would have been amusing, if not for the situation they were currently in.
"Do not play me for a fool unicorns, you know exactly who i am. Now speak up, or swift death by the hands of the twins shall be wrought upon you."
Twillight tensed at his words. He certainly looked like a killer, although he also carried himself with the attitude of a royal. Making twillight wonder if he had ever fought before.
Dash though, was the first to speak up, being offended by the strangers lack of knowledge of pony anatomy.
"Me and Aj aren't unicorns, twillight isn't even entirely a unicorn anymore, so you can go to tartarus you walking halloween decoration."
The stranger didnt look pleased at her words, he drew his right hand behind his back, and pulled as far as twillight could tell, a gigantic orange broadsword out of thin air. He brought the huge sword up to the throat of rainbow and held it in place, firmly rested between the bottom of her jawbone lines.
"Well tell me, if you are not a unicorn. What, are, you?
Rainbow was sweating, visibly sweating. Although she was courageous and a daredevil, having a sword pressed against your throat wasn't exactly her idea of a holiday maker.
"I-i-im a pegasus," she said as she swallowed the lump in throat making the tip of the sword glide carefully over her throat, not drawing blood, but being pretty close to.
He nodded carefully before the sword was shifted to the throat of applejack.
"And now you, what is this world called?"
Applejack was more relaxed than rainbow, but she was still scared.
"Its called e-equestria." She stammered with no small amount of fear in her voice.
The pumpkin nodded carefully, he looked around surveying the landscape, until his fiery irises locked onto the everfree forest. The holes that was his eyes narrowed ever so slightly. He took the sword away from the throat of applejack and pointed it towards the tress.
As if on a whim, pumpkins, smaller than the ones on his head but still an impressive size, erupted from the tip of the sword. They started zooming towards the trees, and every single one got absorbed by the old oak giants.
The trees began to darken, becoming an incredibly dark purple, almost to the point of being obsidian. Holes started appearing in the trees, once again glowing the dark orange of his armor. A twisted smile appeared along with the eyes on the trees. Their roots started rising from the mould and suddenly they started dragging the trees forward, as if they were legs.
And twillight suddenly understood. He controlled them, and by the looks of him, he wasn't gonna let them get recruited into the royal guard.
"Who are you?" Twillight asked again.
The rider looked down at her with a perverse glee, like a child looking at an insect they wished to squash.
"I, am the dark rider of the bloodmoon, commander of all terrarias evil, lord of the corruption, master of the eclipse. I am the headless horseman."
Twillight had never heard of a 'man' before. But the way he addressed himself didn't comfort her the least.
"What do you plan on doing?"
He looked at her as if he had just asked her what a pony was.
"Why, annihilate your entire population and reign as supreme ruler of course."
As if she should have suspected anything else, twillight said to herself. She raised her horn at him and let the magic flow through, preparing to use her most powerful spell, she gathered the energy, channeling it into a single point at the tip of her horn. The lavender spear slammed into his chest, sending him flying off his horse. He landed with an audible thud, and the sound or metal cracking. Yet when he stood up he had a look of amusement in his eyes.
"My my, an admirable adversary it would seem, but you cant even hope to match me."
He once again drew his hand behind his back, the sword disappeared in the same spot it had appeared at first. In stead he pulled out a wand with a raven on the tip.
He pointed the wand towards twillight, but this time, no pumpkins came flying out. Instead, ravens came flying in flocks above the trees of everfree. They plummeted towards twillight, pecking an scratching at her wings and coat.
Twillight was desperately trying to get away from the black predators, she was stumbling straight into her friends. And yet the everfree trees got closer and closer. Increasing their pace and dragging themselves towards the mares.
But then, the ravens departed.
Although twillight knew it was now of their own doing hen she once again looked up at the headless horseman, the scepter was held high and the ravens formed around it, awaiting further instructions.
"So then, my little ponies." He spat the words as if it disgusted him to even say it. "What do you plan on doing now?"
In truth, twillight had no idea. The trees had created an indestructible barrier between them and the direction to ponyville. The only way out......
....was through the portal.
Twillight looked to her three friends. Spike was sitting on applejacks back, clinging on for dear life with his eyes closed, awaiting the inevitable. She wanted to comfort him, but at this moment she had no energy left to spare. She looked at both Aj and rainbow, trying to get eye contact with them, yet they were both focused on the horsemand.
So twillight resorted to the only thing she could think of.
"Into the portal!" She yelled loudly as she kicked from the ground and stayed in her aerial position.
Suddenly the horseman looked completely taken aback, and twillight saw him grasp the handle on the wand a little harder.
"A wingbearer." He said with fear and concern in his voice before he frowned, at least it looked like he frowned. "Minions, kill her before she escapes."
The trees sifted slightly and pointed their branches at her. Suddenly needles erupted from the twigs and zoomed past twillight, none of them hitting her, but get pretty darn close.
Both applejack, spike, and rainbow had run through the portal once twillight had distracted the horseman, so now only twillight remained. Yet she couldn't get away when she was under merciless fire.
She channeled magIc into her horn once again, although his time the magic was fast and colorful instead of sharp and deadly. A flash of vibrant purple light shot out from her horn. Blinding her adversaries as she zoomed through the portal.
The horseman eventually regained his sight, but once he did, he noticed that the Wingbearer had disappeared. He growled to himself, cursing his minions for their weak aim.
"Curses." He muttered under his breath. "If this place has wingbearers, then im going to need a little help."
Twillight was floating in void, she could not feel anything, it felt like she was dead. Yet she could breathe think and move. It almost felt like back when she was in the alicorn realm, only much darker.
But suddenly she felt something pulling her, as if a lasso had caught onto her and started dragging her towards her destination. The question was just this.
What was her destination?
Chapter five: Understanding
Twilight was floating in void, it was hard for her to properly focus on anything. She couldn't feel her legs, her head. Hay, she couldn't feel anything verbatim. She couldn't even talk, let alone scream.
But she could see, she could think, she could hear.
But not scream.
In front of her sat a man in red clothes on what looked to be a floating island in the middle of nothingness, above him loomed a flying skull with detached arms floating around it, it glared with empty eyes at her, wanting to rip her to shreds. But each time it tried to move just slightly, the red clothed mans will prevented it.
Twilight found herself being dragged towards the man, when she got closer she saw more features, he was old...... No, the said to her self, not old, not even ancient.
Almost outside of time itself.
While she was thinking she had drifted towards the island, she almost felt as if her muscles were returned to her body the minute she entered his domain. The man looked up at her, he lifted his hat slightly. He had bright green eyes, but for some reason there was a spot of red moving around his irises, the same red in the skulls eye sockets. His white beard made a bright contrast to the redness of his clothes.
"Twilight sparkle?" He said, his voice was low and gruff, but still pleasant to hear, it was almost like a massage to the ear, it felt uncomfortable at first, but you felt relaxed afterwards.
"Yes, thats me. How do you know me? Ive never met you before...... Right?"
He smiled weakly and nodded sagely. "You have not met me twilight sparkle, that much is true." He paused for a moment, biting his lower lip slightly, as if contemplating on what to say next. "As to how i know you, you can thank my master for that."
He pointed upwards at the giant skull whose movements came across as more pathetic than threatening, although twilight thanked celestia that she wasn't anywhere near those huge skeletal hands.
"His name is skeletron." He said calmly, "you don't have to fear him, he is kept in place by my will, and the power bestowed upon me by his master." He looked as if he had ended his statement, but he continued shortly after. "And praying to celestia will not help you any in terraria."
Twilight looked at him, guffawed. Had this stranger really just read her thoughts? His plain looks should give off no skills of magic. At least Diablo looked like a wizard.
"I bet you are confused, but we have no time for this, you will wake up shortly. You have to kill the eater of worlds to save your friend applejack." He said matter of factly.
She had heard that name before, the cultists had shouted it before assaulting Diablo and Moon.
"How do you know of her?" Twilight asked, wishing for her curiosity to be sated.
"Suffices to say that Red and Blue is the cause of your arrival." He said, dragging his hat back over his eyes.
"Who is Red and Blue?" Twilight started screaming as she felt a new force pull her away, "and who is the eater of worlds?"
He smiled, making his beard crack at the middle. "Ask Diablo, say Wilhelm sent you."
As he said this, twilight was enveloped by light, and she heard a voice making the darkness around her crumble
"Good morning."
Twilights eyes sprung open and she jumped up, spreading her wings preparing to crush more of the werewolf forces.
And found a small blonde woman sitting at her bedside, smiling calmly at her. She was wearing a white lab coat with a red hat that seemed an awful lot like the one nurse Redheart wore.
"Its good to see you're finally up." She said, the smile never leaving her face, "I'm Miranda, I'm a nurse."
So that explains the hat, twilight thought to her self. "Im twi-"
"I know who you are." Miranda said, her voice now hard as steel. "And i know what you're planning."
Twilight was honestly shocked, not so much by Miranda's hostility, but more so the fact that she honestly had no plan. It was something new. But inside she knew she was wrong, she had a plan.
Because Wilhelm had given her one.
"You cant fight the eater of worlds." She said, sounding worried and concerned, "its a god, how do you hope to fight a god?"
Twilight looked down at her bedsheets, dreading what she was about to say, even though it was half of the truth. "Because in my homeland, i am a god."
The nurse sighed, looking at the floor.
"If you are going to fight the entire shade army, then you'll need some help." She stated matter of factly. "Find Kind Moonshadow, he can clue you in."
Twilight remembered Wilhelm's words, "no, i need to speak with diablo!"
The nurse scoffed slightly, looking appalled, and afterwards disgusted. "Why would anyone even consider speaking with a monster like him?"
Twilight didn't even answer, she just walked out the door, making sure to slam it as hard as possible without breaking it.
She started walking towards the castle, she noticed several things that she hadn't seen when she first walked into the gleaming city. First of, there were hardly any shops. True, most ponies in ponyville were of the earth variant, but they still bought food, not all of them were farmers.
She deemed this as one of the questions she would have to ask Omnir at a later date.
She finally stood before the castle door, it was scratched and broken through in a few places. The werewolves sure had taken a toll on the place.
The doors creaked open when the guards caught sight of familiar royalty, twilight casually sauntered inside, making every attempt not to listen to the shouts of praise as she walked in.
She heard titles she never thought she would hear in her life.
"Savior of kings!"
But diablo isnt a king?
"Banisher of darkness!"
Thats a bit much
"Shadeslayer!
Apparently the last one proved to be incredibly popular, because when she entered the throne room she was assaulted at all sides by that particular phrase.
"Shadeslayer!"
"Shadeslayer!"
"SHADESLAYER, SHADESLAYER, SHADESLAYER!!!"
Twilight thought about it, she might as well get something out of it. She raised her hoof upwards, causing the soldiers to clap their hands or shouting even higher, the level of volume was insane.
She saw both Omnir and Doom standing in the crowd, swinging their weapons above their heads causing shrieks of air, mixing with the shouts causing some sort of torrent of sound.
The finally reached the throne, were for once Moonshadow didn't sit, instead she found diablo with the crown on top of his white hood. Blue eyes staring out with a mix of appreciation and slight annoyance radiating from the vibrant blue orbs.
He stood up and raised a hand for silence. The soldiers immediately shut their mouths, looking up at the high sorcerer.
He looked back down at her and put a hand on her shoulder.
"Thank you, twilight sparkle. Not only have you saved me and my brother, but subsequently the entire town as well. For this there is no way i can repay you, but anything you wish for shall be yours."
The soldiers once again started chanting, yelling her newly acquired title and stomping on the floor. Both Omnir and Doom merely stood and waited for twilight's wish.
She looked down at the floor sighing slightly, he was not going to like her request.
"I wish to journey to the corruption."
The sorcerer merely looked at her, his eyes that before shone the vibrant blue now had the purple tint slowly creep into them.
He rose from his chair. "This i will not allow." He said, authority dominating his voice.
"But thats where Applejack is, you said so yourself." She said, her voice so high it was almost unbearable.
"I said it was a possibility, Twilight sparkle. I never stated it as pure fact!" His hands were now behind his back, making him look like a dictator more so than a mage.
"I was told this by Wilhelm." Twilight quickly said, the outburst causing the entire room to be immediately silent.
The sorcerers eyes had returned to their normal blue state, but he suddenly looked both sad and worried. His hands fell limply to the side and he looked at the floor.
"When did he say this?" He asked, this time his voice little more than a whisper.
"When i was unconscious." She said, still determined to remain on good foot with the wizard.
"What did he say?" He asked in the same tone of voice.
"He told me i was sent here by red and blue."
"Heh." He said, in a way that seemed to be both chuckle and sigh, "of course they would have something to do with it."
He looked down at his hands, seemingly searching for something specific, he put his hands together, drawing upon his power and forcing it between his palms. When he opened them again there was a book, it had an orange rim and a was a dark blue in the middle.
"Read this, it should be able to help you in the upcoming fight."
Twilight nodded, grabbing the book.
"Omnir," diablo shouted, awakening the giant from his weird state of upstanding slumber, "lead twilight down to the forge and get her equipped, i think meteor would be the right choice."
"Sound judgement Diablo." He grunted before waving for twilight to follow.
The soldiers no longer chanted, they merely looked at her with pity, as if they expected never to see her again. Then it struck her, they actually thought they were never going to see her again. In their eyes she was walking towards certain doom.
Twilight couldn't
She turned around in mere seconds, raised her hoof to her forehead in salute. For her it was alien, for her it was weird. But it was exactly what they needed.
The entire crowd returned her gesture, although in a different fashion. They raised their fists in the air before bringing them down on their chests, the force of the slam making the walls tremble slightly.
"We will await your return." They said in unison.
Twilight smiled, they truly believed in her. She turned around, before the door closed she heard one last shout
"SHADESLAYER!!!"
And then the door was shut, only her and Omnir in the hallway leading back to the city and its busy life.