From Reaches Most Nether In Nature!
Not Oblivion... Somewhere Else
"Wha... what in the name of Oblivion? Where in the infinite realms am I? This isn't that godforsaken battlefield!" Sweetie Belle looked at what she had done with fear in her heart.
It was about three hours after midday in Ponyville and everypony had just gotten out of school for the weekend. The only foal of all of them that was sad to leave the classroom was Sweetie Belle, who enjoyed learning above all else. And naturally, just like every other weekend, she went to the library right after school to pickup a tome to study on.
The door to the new library opened with a sharp squeak which caused her fur to stand on end. And with a few easy steps she was inside; books and books as far as the eye could see! The filly squeaked with excitement and rushed to the counter on the far end of the room.
"Yoo hoo! Anypony home?" she called out before noticing a tiny bell that was perched upon the small counter near the edge.
Ping ping ping ping ping ping!
A large brown hoof came down upon her's all of the sudden and stopped the sharp sounds that it was making. "I'm here, I'm here! Just stop the pinging." he nearly whispered. "Ponies are trying to read in here."
"Sorry."
"Now what do you want?" he asked, turning around and looking through a bunch of old books that were laying in front of him.
She watched him sift through the books, putting each and everyone one of them away in their proper places with his magic. "I dunno. Give me a tome if you can, please? I'm trying to get better at my magic." she explained before shooting a little spout of magic from her horn.
"Oh alright. Here ya go. Now please leave before your friends come in here and wreck everything again." he told her abruptly before pointing towards the door.
"We said we were sorry!" she nearly shouted.
"And I said sorry doesn't pay for the wall you destroyed! Now get!" the stallion retorted, sending the little filly out the door as fast as her stubby legs could carry her.
When she finally arrived at her home, the Carousel Boutique, which also functioned as her sister's clothing shop. When she got there, she dusted her little hooves off at the doormat and ran through the door and into the boutique, kicking up ribbons and fabric as she went.
"Please slow down Sweetie! No need to hurry." Rarity shouted from her sewing machine, which was working at full speed.
Sweetie Belle galloped up the stairs and into her room, slamming the door behind her. After which she immediately flung herself onto her bed and flipped the book open as fast as she could.
"Wait..." she said aloud, closing the book quickly to get a look at the cover, "'Oblivion Charms and Summons'? What the hay?" the filly opened the book again and began reading through the pages.
Every single page she flipped onto held something new and exciting. A spell that could summon nether creatures to her beckon and call. A spell that could protect anything she casts it on from all harm... and even one that could turn things into other things! She gasped aloud and squealed with delight. It was perfect and she could have so much fun with them! Turning herself into a timberwolf to scare her friends, or summoning some weird monster to defeat big monsters.
After searching through and learning the names of every spell in the tome, she set her eyes upon the last page. A spell called 'Grandmaster's Summons'. It said that it could summon the one and only Grandmaster of the Nether Reaches, who would obey the command of whoever summons him. Eager and ready to meet this master, she studied the spell for hours and hours on end, memorizing and learning every single arcane equation and sequence. She kept at it until the early morning when the sun was just peaking it's glowing edges over the horizon.
"Ugh." she grunted tiredly, "Finally! I can do this stupid spell. I think..."
The filly admired her work, a large symbol that she had scribbled upon the ground to help her with the spell. That which was embedded in the expensive carpet. "Rarity's gonna kill me for this..." she moaned.
Speak of the devil. "Sweetie Belle! Come down here and eat some breakfast! You must be starving!" her sister called from downstairs.
"In a minute!" the filly called back. "I've gotta finish this quick..."
Energy began to flow around her horn, just as the symbol on the floor began to glow as well. Everything around her began to faintly turn green as her vision darkened slightly. That or the room itself became darker. Slowly but surely the array in the carpet started becoming brighter and brighter, it's edges stretching outwards and changing as the spell progressed. Eventually the set of symbols and lines started to disappear, much to the relief of Sweetie. Yet she didn't want to show it just yet. Her horn still aglow and her mind still in a state of deep concentration, she brought forth all of the magical strength she could muster until finally... it fizzled out. The faint green that surrounded her went away and the lighting in the room returned to normal.
"Darn it!" it had taken all night to learn that spell and it failed just like that. "Really?! I almost had it!" she squealed angrily before kicking one of the toys she had scattered around the room.
Unknown to her, that was the spark she needed. All of the sudden a cloud of green energy and smoke expanded rapidly from where the array had once been, covering everything in the room in a faint smokey green color.
"Ugh." she coughed, "What the hay was that?" as she continued to cough up the smoke, a strange figure appeared from within the mist.
"Wha-? What in the name of Oblivion? Where in the infinite realms am I? This isn't that godforsaken battlefield!" Sweetie Belle looked at what she had done with fear in her heart.
Whatever it was, it had to be the strangest thing she had ever seen. Stranger than the timberwolves, the chimera, and Discord all combined into one; a weird creature that seemed to be nothing more than a bunch of bones glowing with a green energy. Two huge horns sprouted up from it's misshapen skull, along with a popped, spiky green collar that was a part of a strangely super hero-like outfit that belonged in a comic book.
"What the heck are you staring at, horsey?" he said in a mean, gravely voice. "Am I really that ugly? Oh wait... of course I am!"
The thing stomped loudly around her room, stopping at every little thing and admiring it. "What is this?" he levitated one of her favorite toys and vaporized it immediately.
"Hey! That was Fuzzy Buns!" she galloped to the ashes of her fallen doll which lay in a heap in front of the creature.
"Well, Mrs. little Fuzzy Buns went on a one way trip to Oblivion, didn't she? Ha ha ha!" he chortled as he brought another toy into his grasp and destroyed it just as easily as Fuzzy Buns.
"Sir Patty Winkle!" she yelled helplessly as the monster destroyed her toys one at a time, "Stop that right now!"
"Oh no! What's a little horsey gonna do to me? I'll tell you what she's gonna do; nothing." he chuckled again before zapping more and more of the trinkets and toys, charring the carpet with each step he took. After he finished reducing the last of them to dust, he set his eyes to her beloved makeup which lay in a neat setup on her dresser.
"What's this?" he asked as he approached the display, "Little horsey wants to look goodsy? Too badsy! Ha ha ha!" a mere second later and every single powder and tube of lipstick that adorned the wooden dresser was reduced to smithereens; as was the dresser itself.
"No! That had all of my clothes inside it! Why the hay did you do that for?!" she screamed, throwing herself at the monster that just destroyed every gown and dress that she had every worn.
"You think you can hurt the mighty Pugna? You couldn't even hurt a fly, let alone me, the Grandmaster of the Nether Reaches!" he boasted, lifting her up higher and higher until her horn barely scraped again the ceiling.
"Wait..." a look of realization washed over her, "You're the thing I summoned?! Ugh! Why did I ever go to the stupid library? I hate it!" right afterwards she broke down into tears.
"You summoned me? Perhaps you aren't as pathetic as I first thought..." with a wave of his glowing wand, every toy and piece of makeup he had blasted returned to normal, just as it was before the summoning spell. The walls and ceiling were cleaned of the sickening green residue that was left on them. "Now stop crying or I'll blast them all again." The next thing she knew, she was back on the ground.
"Wha-? How'd you do that?" the filly asked as got to her hooves and admired Pugna's handiwork. Everything was back to normal. Even the books and papers were in a neat pile and set nicely in alphabetical order. She happily wiped the tears from her eyes as she looked upon her favorite toys once again.
"That was just a taste of my power, little horsey. Why would you think any less of Pugna?" he boasted once more. "And quit looking so happy! It's sickening."
"My name isn't 'horsey', it's Sweetie Belle!" she scorned, annoyed at the nickname he had given her.
He conjured a small resting chair behind him, which he immediately fell back into.
"Now, 'Sweetie Belle'." he kicked his legs up and set his legs down onto a conjured stool. "Show me what else you can do."
"What?"
"Come on! Do some more magic! Blast something, conjure a frog and turn it inside out, anything!" the image of doing something so horrible to a poor frog caused her to turn an unsightly shade of green.
"That was kind of the only spell I learned from the tome..." this left Pugna to laugh heartily.
"You can't be serious..." he asked between chuckles, "You thought to just summon me and have nothing to show for it?"
"It seemed like the hardest one in the book, okay?" she shouted, embarrassed by his mean words. This only caused him to laugh even harder. He bent over on one knee and held his stomach. "Would you quit it?"
"I'm sorry! I can't help it." he mockingly ran a boney finger under his eye socket, "I haven't laughed that hard in a long while. Now..." he got out of his chair and they exploded in a flash of green light and smoke. "Let's get down to business."
"What business?"
"Well... you summoned me. I made that damn spell as hard and impossible as I could make it, yet you managed to get past every safeguard and crack every one of my equations. Please, almighty summoner of the Nether Grandmaster Pugna, point me in the direction of what you want to explode and die horribly." he feigned a bow causing the distraught filly to sigh tiredly.
It was going to be a long weekend.
