Author's Note

Well despite it taking me an entire month to write this painfully short chapter, I am happy to finally have it done. I present to all it may concern, Chapter 7.

Though that is always one of those things I'm insecure about, I read a lot of other fanfiction and am always in awe of how much content they produce and how long and epic their stories are. Always make me feel silly when I take three weeks to produce 2,500 words.

Anyway, as always any constructive criticism, or comments in general are hugely appreciated! :)

Fulmination

Through the clouded windowsill the blackness of the dog's eye sockets stared back at me in utter stillness. Allowing the creature no advantage of sight but promising utter horror to its victims in it's soulless shrouded caverns which once housed an innocent canine mind.

Still frozen with the librarian's breath breezing across the edge of my cupped hand, I simply hoped and prayed that the growling had not been the hound on the other end of the glazen wall separating us, which seemed thinner by the moment.

My prayers went unanswered. The beast growled yet again in a low resonating tone, causing my stomach to seize and twist. My muscles tensed as the rumbling growl drawled before fading back to a deathly silence.

It felt like minutes in a statue contest with an undead mutt. Not really all that fair of a contest when put in that context. That said, I was in an admittedly precarious stance in the moment that I froze so it was only a matter of time.

With a light thump I stumbled into a more balanced position and immediately flinched. With my eyes scrunched shut, my ears rung as they strived and struggled to listen for any inclination as to if the noise had been heard. Indeed it had.

Again a low growl came through the window, louder than before. Again growling a bit louder, this time punctuated with a bark. I jumped at this and both Twilight and I stumbled back from the window, our eyes wide with terror. We had surely been discovered.

Suddenly a rustling came from across the diner. The prismatic pegasus leapt over the bar counter and made a beeline for the front door.

"Rainbow No!" Twilight hissed.

Heedless to Twilights words, she uttered just loud enough to be audible.

"Make it count guys." Her tone solemn and determined.

She tore through the front doors with a slam as they struck the sides of the exterior. Immediately the hound leapt back into a loaded position toward the new threat, this time unleashing a flurry of grotesque barks, yelps and howls. The pegasus immediately, without a sparing glance, took to the sky with a great crack.

The mutt instantly took to pursuit on the ground. Twilight and I rushed to the window to watch her fly off to the sky, when suddenly six more skinless mutts came bolting past to where the first had gone, broadcasting their own brand of ear grinding symphonies.

Looking back to the sky, Twilight and I observed as the pegasus ducked and dodged around what seemed to be some decrepit buzzards hanging in the sky, closing in on her with ghoulish gait.

Soon more could be seen, closing in from seemingly every corner of the sky. The air space quickly becoming cramped, the pegasus began striking them from the sky with powerful kicks. The buzzards left inky contrails in their absence upon being struck and spiralling to an unscheduled decent.

She seemed to have control of the skies due to her impressive aerial prowess, till a bellowing screech rang through the air as a massive black feathered buzzard gusted overhead into view. Leaving great inky contrails streaming off the tips of its primaries, they remained heavy in the air as it made its way at threatening speeds toward Rainbow.

The pegasus quickly noticed the new competition and began evasive manoeuvres as the great boned beast lunged and snapped its colossal beak at what it believed to be its target. Whiffing and coming in contact with only its own jaw, the beast snapped shut its maw and over shot its target as the pegasus expertly dodged the great buzzard.

Stooping into a wide bank the beast began making its way around for another chance at its prize. Rainbow was visibly becoming fatigued at this point, fear and anxiety began to ball up in my stomach. Suddenly a crack and flash came off down the distance and with that Luna was visible barely in the distance quickly approaching from Canterlot.

Suddenly a titanic chorus of pegasi took to the skies behind her in a brilliant cloud of white and gold.The great mass headed by the princess of the night began to accelerate as they took to a more solid formation.

My heart leapt in both awe and relief as the fulminations of the oppressed appeared before my weary eyes in true form and manifestation.

The host of pegasi broke off and headed to take care of the towns new occupants while the princess herself flew at astonishing speeds to assist Rainbow with the disposal of her avian pursuer.

The pegasi fell upon the town as the enraged screeches of the Minotaur abominations could be heard. The third Minotaur which had been absent from my mind was still standing stark still within the wreckage of sofas and quills. Then suddenly a small troupe of no more than six pegasi soldiers swept by and struck the beast each in various places.

The beast instantly sprang to life and charged after them, vocalizing all its rage with its patented bellowing cry. I twisted to look after it through the window. The beast continued in pursuit till it reached an intersection where it was immediately T-boned by a much more significant flock of pegasi. They struck the Minotaur in unison and with enough force that its head whipped around from the sudden side impact.

With its head primly gazing between its own shoulder blades the beast fell limply to the ground, a delayed reaction to the new state of affairs pertaining to the integrity of its spine. The beasts flames slowly licked off and dissipated, leaving only an ashen skeleton to smoulder in the intersection.

An ear pinging crack tore my gaze back to the sky. It seems there was still very much an aerial dog fight ensuing in the admittedly darkened and overcast skies. It seemed that Rainbow was able to keep the buzzard occupied with her bright colours and dizzying aerial manoeuvres whilst the princess fired all manners of destructive magic at the beast.

The buzzard shrieked with skull rending intensity as another bolt blazed a path through the form of the beast. Turning on the bolt's caster the princess began her own brand of evasive manoeuvres.

Though the princess was by no means lacking in grace or speed in her evasions, it was becoming more apparent that Rainbows dizzying spectacles were more necessary then for show as she was forced to telleport on several occasions to evade the relentless bird's maw. Her manoeuvres becoming visibly more desperate as the bird's brutality seemed to intensify, Rainbow took this opportunity to cut into a vertical climb.

Disappearing into the gloomy cloud layer Rainbow remained obscured from sight for a time. I looked on with horrified anticipation as Princess of the Night narrowly evaded yet another ravenous snap from the boned maw of the necrotic horror. This time however instead of its usual lazy bank it would employ to allow re-engagement, the buzzard whipped back it's massive head and folded it's wings, flipping onto its back it then spiralled as to turn its breast back to the ground before wafting out its massive black wings.

Luna, having expected a recuperation period was visibly caught off guard by the charging bird. I had fully and completely thought this would be the end of the princess as she froze like a dear in headlights, my head ringing with the frenzied shrieks of the shrouded buzzard.

I thought her fate sealed when my fixed attention was spirited away by a sudden blast, blowing away the cloud layer with an awe-striking prismatic disc which spread at unthinkable speeds, as a much faster approaching projectile left its spectral contrail to mark its path strait through the blackest beast's form.

Suddenly all of the sounds of what had transpired hit me at once, giving me perspective to the speeds at which the spectacle had just occurred, my ears ringing with the full wrath of the defeated cries of the buzzard as it folded and plummeted to the ground.

I was taken from my stunned state by Twilight nudging me urgently. Right, crap. Rainbow had just been risking her ass out there to buy time for us to get in a better position and all we've been doing is staring with our thumbs up our asses. So much for "make it count". There is still time at least.

Twilights made her way toward the door.

"C'mon everyone." Twilight called. "Now's as good a time as any to...

My heart stopped as the door frame was suddenly filled with an all too familiar figure with his signature tool in full swing. Astonishingly, Twilight reacted at speeds which would humble even the young flyer. Just as quickly as Wilhelm had appeared , Twilight extended a ward to meet the blow halfway.

A gut wrenching clang rang out as twilight was launched backward, her feet still planted and dragging as she slid to a screeching halt, inches from the diner counter. She quickly extended the barrier to block the door way, encompassing most of the building, the strain of doing so leaking out in her facial expression like blood from a gaping wound.

Wilhelm immediately began savagely beating at the librarian's barrier with his oversized blade, yelling unintelligible aggressions at the party inside the building. Each strike visibly weakening Twilight. We could all see this was not a permanent fix to this extremely dire situation.

We needed a plan, fast.

Spark almost immediately rushed over to Twilight.

"Okay" Spark began, having to raise his voice a bit to be heard over the mad ramblings of the bone-man outside, despite the ward being mostly sound proof. "We obviously can't stay here so when I say go, you're going to drop the barrier. Understand?" He stepped to look her strait in the eyes his eyes riddled with suppressed panic.

"And then what?" Twilight seethed through gritted teeth, meeting his gaze with one eye, while the other remain clenched shut.

"I'll hit him with the best I got. Then we make a run for the Everfree." Spark stated.

"Are you nuts?" She forced the words slowly.

"Look, we obviously can't take Sarcomere head on so we'll infiltrate the forest find his lair or whatever." Spark was essentially yelling at this point, much louder than he needed to at that. "It's not a perfect plan but its all we got, so are you all on board?"

Spark looked around to meet solemn nods all around. He turned to me and I raised my right thumb in confirmation. He was right, It wasn't a perfect plan, they rarely are when your imminent death is literally knocking at the door, but at least it was a plan.

He looked back to Twilight, lowering his head to meet her one eyed gaze. "Okay?" He asked desperately.

"F-Fine!" Twilight barely managed.

"Okay" Spark breathed. He stepped to the side of the librarian and faced toward the occupied doorway. He seemed to visibly loosen up as he wiggled each part of his body. Finally he took a deep breath the dipped his head to slip his dangling goggles snugly onto his face. He twisted his head one way and another, audibly cracking his neck. He then bowed his head and mouthed something I couldn't quite identify.

"Three" He began suddenly. "Two" Every one in the room was walking cautiously into position, preparing to haul flank at a moments notice. "one" I too sunk into a loaded position, directed straight at the door, trying desperately to swallow the lump in my throat that seems to appear at even the mere thought of the figure pounding at the barrier. "GO!" Spark shouted.

The barrier dissipated and Wilhelm's latest swing met nothing but air, crashing into the floor boards of the diner. Immediately it became uncomfortably hot in the room. A massive pillar of brilliant flame filled the door way launching Wilhelm into the building across the way. With a splintering crash Wilhelm fell deep into the building across the way which was now moderately alight with flame from the residuals of Spark's beam. Hard to believe a horn could produce that much heat.

There was brief hesitation and pregnant silence as the smoke cleared. Twilight was the one to initiate despite her drained state. Spark took off in kind and that was all the signal I needed. I unloaded my legs into a full on sprint.

Skidding out into the middle of the scorched street, I dropped my right hand to shift my weight into the sharp right turn to orient myself toward where Twilight and Spark had gone. Followed by four other mares, I sprinted with all my might to catch up with two ponies in front of me. We were making a mad dash for the hole in the wall.

I looked over my shoulder as I ran to see the orange earth pony, the alabaster unicorn, the pink earth pony, and the blue diner mare all in tow. To my great dismay a smouldering Wilhelm came stumbling out of his ashen hole and rolled into the middle of the street. Slowly making his way to his Zweihander I turned back to the road ahead and yelled.

"We might wanna go a bit faster!" As I said this the four ponies in tow were now right next to me galloping at full tilt. Not wanting to look behind me I started thrashing at the dirt with my legs even harder, possibly the hardest I ever had.

We were quickly approaching the wall. With a swift leap I vaulted over what was left of the wall in the destroyed section. We all looked on in stunned silence as a seemingly endless hoard of undead equine and beasts were making their way out of the Everfree in a wide berth closing in on the perimeter of the town.

"H-How is this possible?" Twilight exclaimed woefully.

And it was then it dawned on me. "Because, he's been collecting corpses for the last thousand years."

We quickly turned on our heels, I was the first to vault back over only to meet the gaze of Wilhelm who was not fifty meters away with his sword gripped tightly in hand.

"Turn back" I yelled in desperation. I vaulted back over.

The hoard was quickly approaching and Wilhelm was just around the corner.

"What do we..." Before I could finish my panicked thought a great crack left my ears ringing and a blast kicked dirt into my face. When I recovered from my flinch, my arms moved to reveal none other than the Princess of the Night herself, standing in all her majesty. "Luna..." The name escaped my lips.

"There's no time." Luna said as she cast her crackling horn to the ground as a shape as black as the void thatched itself onto the ground beneath us and spread to encompass all of us before giving way to a black liquid pool which began to allow us into it with not a breath to spare.

Within no more than two seconds we had all sunk into the void, and as I remain completely submerged with all sensation slipping away from me as even orientation became obscured to my recognition, I simply relished in the absence of all things.

Alas, it was not to last though.

As though I were spit up by death itself, I came crashing back to reality with the horrible burning of my lungs to greet me. The pain intensified tenfold with each growing second. I rolled over and vomited black liquid onto the floor. I rolled onto my back to meet eyes with a magnificent white alicorn with a sparkling spectral mane which flowed on unseen currents.

The alicorn spoke in a serene and benevolent tone.

"Good evening Daniel."