“Then the LORD said, ‘How great is the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah and how very grave their sin!’”
- Gen 18:20
A dry, dusty town in the middle of nowhere, Lonesome Dove had never seen anything like this before. The sky was black as the very sun was blotted out. As he got off his rocking chair, Shady Tourmaline removed the dusty old hat from his balding, wrinkling pate and looked into the darkening abyss where the sun had been. It almost seemed like the sun had been blockaded, as though her highness Princess Luna – stars preserve her! – was possessed once more by the dark specter known as Nightmare Moon and had extinguished the great ball of light.
Of course, there’s probably a more reasonable answer, he thought to himself, as he chewed on the corncob pipe in his mouth. Likely the goofballs at the San Palomino regional weather station let loose too many clouds again, enough so to expect thunderheads on what was supposed to be a sunny summer week. Shady sighed; as the mayor of the town, he was going to have to talk to his liaison next time she was in town; this was the third time this year that the weather station screwed up and it tended to play hell with the locals.
Well, the last time wasn’t too bad, he had to admit. Everypony got a kick out of snow in the middle of summer.
He bent down to relight his pipe, and felt cool spring air. Looking up, the sun was back again, with not a cloud or stitch of darkness to be seen. The golden orb continued its Princess-planned path across the dome of the sky, as if nothing had been the matter.
Wha…what was that?
“Shady!” a voice called out. “Shady, we need ya!” Putting his hat back on, the old stallion got moving off his porch and in the direction of the shouts. He didn’t have to wait long to find out who was crying out for help: Bushel Barrel, the proprietress of the town’s general store. “Shady, it’s a catastrophe!” the aged earth pony mare said when she arrived. “She’s on the road! She’s coming back!”
“Bushel, honey, what’s got you all a-fluster?” Shady asked, idly scratching his white beard.
“I knew we shoulda moved the town or moved away! Look, my grandson – he’s just a young colt – he don’t deserve none of this!”
“Bushel, mind tellin’ me what this is all about?”
“I can tell ya, boss,” a burly stallion approached, a frightened look in his eyes despite his huge frame. “The Monster’s returned.”
“Your highness, I can’t thank you enough for coming with me on this trip,” one unicorn said to another as they walked along the dusty trail through the trees. Both wore saddlepacks for the long trip and had traveled a long, long way from their home. The first unicorn (the speaker) was a deep-raspberry-coated mare, with a wavy mane of lilac and cornflower that framed eyes of a dark-rose hue.
The other unicorn (the one being addressed) wore a lavender coat, with a plum-hued mane through which shocks of magenta and violet traveled above a pair of purple eyes. “Raspberry, I wish you wouldn’t do that,” the second traveler replied.
“I know,” the first, Raspberry Beryl, said gently, “but we’re almost at Lonesome Dove and I feel like I need to get in the habit of using your title, Twilight. You are a princess, after all.”
Twilight Sparkle, the second traveler, grinned impishly. “Well, in case you haven’t forgotten: so are you. With you being the last of King Sombra’s line, technically you are a princess in pretense, just like Blueblood’s family is to the Canterlot throne. Besides, Cadance did throw that party in the Crystal Empire to formally welcome you back as a princess of the realm,” she pointed out.
“Don’t remind me,” Raspberry said, sighing. “Honestly, if it wasn’t for the fact that Rarity insisted that I do so, I’d have skipped the whole thing altogether. As it was, after Fair Vista was finally defeated and everypony cured of the werewolf curse, I was hoping just to get back to my life running the inn for Cashmere and Ascot.” The darker unicorn’s mouth turned into a tight line as she added, “But Cashmere made me promise her that I would make peace with my past before continuing, so….”
“Don’t worry, I’m more than happy to be here with you. Celestia says I should travel around the realm while I can still do so in peace. There are still some parts of Equestria that haven’t heard of the Elements of Harmony, my coronation, or anything like that; sooner or later that’s going to change and when it does, I won’t get any rest.”
A flash of green flickered in the air, before dive bombing and coming to a stop just above Raspberry’s horn. With a gentle push, the young phoenix landed gracefully on his mistress’ horn, chirping something softly. “Heelee says that the town’s just past the next hill,” Raspberry replied.
“That’s good,” Twilight said as they pressed on.
In truth, the news put Raspberry ill at ease. She wasn’t entirely sure how the ponies in Lonesome Dove would treat her arrival after what had happened all those years ago. It was possible they'd simply forgotten all about that terrible night, but Raspberry wasn’t holding her breath. As she and Twilight continued along the worn path, an overwhelming sense of dread began to well up within Raspberry. What was more, she thought she saw something dart between the trees off to her left. You’re jumping at shadows, Razz.
“We can get to an inn for the night an—” Twilight’s words were cut off by an arrow suddenly landing next to them. “WAAAA!” she yelped in surprise, but not before she threw up an additional magical barrier, blocking two more arrows from finding their mark.
“Next one’ll hit for sure!” a pony shouted out in a voice that was more fear than bravado.
“What are you doing?” Twilight called out, scanning the trees for their assailant. Whoever it was concealed themselves well. “We’re not your enemies!”
“Says you!” the pony shouted as he walked into view. He was a pegasus, and used his wings to hold the bow and arrow steady – an incredible feat for pegasi – usually they weren’t capable of that level of dexterity with their wings. But his cutie mark was a target with an arrow at the center and from the looks of his well-worn bow he was more than capable of using it to exacting skill. “You’re with her and we’re not going to give either of you a chance to hurt us!”
“She’s not here to hurt you!”
A large, muscular earth pony mare approached from behind the pegasus, carrying a lethal-looking spear and an air of authority. “Sureshot, take them out now before it’s too late!” Behind her was another stallion, also an earth pony, wearing what looked to be well-outdated Guard barding.
“That shield’s blocking my arrows, Javelin!” Sureshot called back.
“Wallbreaker, can you bust through that shield?” Javelin called back to the armored pony.
“Should be able to – this ol’ armor used to break through dozens of shields when Grandpappy was a guardspony back in Maneapolis,” the stallion named Wallbreaker answered. “Just clear me a path and I’ll be through ‘er in an instant. Better fire quick, though, Sure – sometimes those unicorns can be fast.”
“All I need is a second – and with the Monster, not even need that much,” Sureshot seethed.
Twilight didn’t have much time to explain. Instead, she borrowed a page out of her mentor’s book and called forth the power of the sun itself as the world became blinding in its brilliance. It was just enough to make the three aggressors drop their weapons as they were consumed in all-encompassing white. A few seconds later, as their vision began to clear, they noticed three things: that their weapons had been dropped, that the shield around their targets had been dropped…
…and that there was, in full regalia, something that should absolutely not be.
“Wha? A third alicorn?” Javelin exclaimed, shocked.
“Third?” Twilight asked, raising her wings to prominence and taking another page from a fellow princess, this time Luna’s more rigid demeanor. While she was still getting used to the regalia that had been made for her, she played the role of princess for every bit she was worth; her tiara, torc and shoes, all of burnished red gold, glowed with the ethereal brilliance befitting her station, displaying it for the trio before her to see. “What do you mean, ‘third’?”
“I-I…uh, I…um….” The mare called Javelin stammered, completely caught off-guard by the line of questioning.
“What she means is who in blazes are you?” Wallbreaker called out. “You’re clearly not our divine Princess Celestia, nor are you her niece Princess Cadance. Unless you’re one of those changeling critters from down south, you’d better explain who you are, missy!” the stallion said, reaching behind him for a sword…
…that suddenly appeared at Twilight’s hooves. “Ponies, I can keep this up all day,” she said in what she hoped was a regally-annoyed tone. “Now, I want to know why you attacked me and my friend!”
Before they could answer, a gruff, older voice came down. “What’re you three doin’, attacking innocent ponies like tha…?” As the stallion came into view, his eyes opened wide at who he saw standing there. Immediately, he bowed down before Twilight, then glared at the other three when he noticed they weren’t doing the same. “On your haunches – don’t ya know who that is? On your haunches, now! Git!”
“Not a clue, mayor,” Sureshot said as he refused to prostrate himself.
“That’s Princess Twilight Sparkle, ya fool! Whose coronation I went to in Canterlot a few months back!” Shady said as he got up and bopped Sureshot on the head with his hat.
“A third alicorn?” Javelin said with surprise. “Well if that don’t beat all!”
“It does – mainly ‘cause she’s the fourth – Princess Celestia’s sister, Princess Luna, returned from her exile about three years ago. Now, if’n ya can’t be bothered to take an interest in current events, the least you could do is show the princess some respect!” Holding his hat to his heart, he looked at Twilight plainly. “Please forgive him, your worshipfulness. He don’t mean no harm – just part of the town guard, makin’ sure we stay safe from problems.”
“Yeah, problems like her!” Javelin snarled, pointing at Twilight’s traveling companion.
“Do you even know who this is?” Twilight looked at Javelin and the mare shrunk back. “This is Princess Raspberry Beryl of the old Crystal Imperial family. Do you still want to attack her?” At the mention of her title, Raspberry turned to Twilight with a look of dismay, but the brief look that Twilight gave her back let her know that that the alicorn had everything under control…or at least remotely looked like it.
“So, you’re calling yourself a princess now, Monster?” Wallbreaker seethed from where he lay. “I might have to respect you, Princess Twilight, but that…thing ain’t gonna get none from me, and so help me if I get my hooves on her, I’m gonna—”
“You’re going to do what?” a calm, commanding male voice rose behind him. All three of the town’s guardsponies along with Shady froze in their tracks. As they slowly turned around, they found a contingent of fully barded and armed pegasi standing there, looking at them like insects.
“Apologies for the delay in arrival, your highnesses,” the forwardmost guard said as he bowed to Twilight and Raspberry. “We know you wanted to have enough buffer space between your travels and our escort, but…we may have given too much of a buffer.”
“It’s okay, Skyracer,” Twilight said affably. “I’m sure it was just a misunderstanding. But go ahead and set up camp as planned. We’ll be in town here and should be fine, though if you think we need a security detail, try not to make them too obvious – we don’t want to spook the townsfolk.”
“Roger that, ma’am,” he saluted as he turned to give his troops orders.
“So, you’re the mayor?” Twilight asked Shady as Raspberry tried to move into a safer position behind her friend. The unicorn didn’t recognize any of the militia that attacked them from when she lived here, but the old stallion they spoke to now was familiar.
“Yes, ma’am – Viscount Shady Tourmaline. I’m the local noblepony and the town mayor, though…to be honest, I’m really more of the latter than the former around here. Not much call for nobles or even mayors out here in Lonesome Dove. We, ah, kinda like it that way and besides, we figured by keeping a low profile, we’d be able to avoid more of the curse.”
“The curse?”
“The curse brought on by your birth, Princess,” he said, looking at Raspberry Beryl. “Funny, you look different than you did that night. Maybe it was my imagination, or maybe we’d had a little too much to drink and too much of your pa’s strangeness. Or maybe…well, we don’t know much about magic ‘round these parts – could be that, too.”
“I think this is something that we’d best discuss in private, mayor,” Twilight suggested.
“Yeah, I reckon so. Captain Javelin,” he addressed his guardsponies, “you and yer fellows help the Princesses’ guards get set up. Then pass the word to the townsfolk so they don’t get spooked like you three clowns did – bad enough Bushel Barrel and Iron Ingot are spreadin’ tales; I don’t need you three to add to the mess.”
“Well, if that don’t beat all,” Shady said an hour later in the comfort of his own home.
The mayor’s home was a cozy place in the woods at the edge of town. It was filled with finely crafted wooden furniture that didn’t look to have moved from their places for generations. Old decorations and family photos lined the shelves, and the walls held a few paintings of important looking yet rugged ponies, along with a few landscapes of forests and rivers that looked to be nearby. Twilight took notice of the completely filled bookshelves in the study, but also noted the layer of dust covering them.
Shady had invited both Twilight and Raspberry in, as well as Bushel and Ingot. To put them at ease, Twilight in turn asked Skyracer to post two of his guards, the most imposing ones he had. With them there, it prevented the townsponies from getting too confrontational with Raspberry, while at the same time giving the impression that they were there to protect the other ponies as well. Fortunately, after both Twi and Raspberry told their tales, the trio of locals sat there, completely breathless before Shady made his proclamation.
“Yer tellin’ me that all these years, we thought you was the Monster, only to find out that you saved the world from some curse yer ancestor left behind?” Ingot said, shocked. Bushel merely looked at Raspberry with a glance that was both ashamed and awestruck.
“She did,” Twilight said, with a note of pride for her friend, “and we Princesses of Equestria are proud to consider her a friend of the Crown. She was even welcomed with open forelegs—”
“Not entirely, Twilight,” Raspberry said, somewhat embarrassed that her friend was embellishing the story just the tiniest bit.
“Not true, Razz! At first, sure, they were afraid of your family history – just like a lot of others were, but when they got to know you just like we did, they were thrilled to count you as one of the Crystal Empire. Especially since you finally showed that blood isn’t necessarily thicker than water!”
“And to think, we almost….” Bushel shivered; she’d been there that night over a decade ago and had been very much intending to use the pitchfork she’d held that day. And if she had….
“It’s over and done with,” Twilight said, seeing the morose faces around her. “It’s in the past and I’m sure Razz would just like to pay respects at the gravesite, then move on – we still have quite some ground to cover on our goodwill tour, and—”
Shady practically bolted out his seat. “You’re heading to the gravesite?” he asked, speechless. The others looked at him with equal shock, then all as one fixed their eyes on the unicorn. “I wouldn’t go there, were I you,” he said, his voice the very note of sobriety.
“Why not?” Twilight asked.
“There’s somethin’…wrong…about that place,” Iron Ingot said, his voice a hushed murmur.
“Wrong? How so?”
Bushel and Ingot exchanged a nervous look, and Shady pensively stroked his beard before answering, “Unlike the rest of this town, I’m not a superstitious pony by nature. I believe there’s a rational explanation for everything. That being said, there are some things that simply defy rational explanation. Yer old farmstead is one of them, Princess.”
“The place is bewitched!” Bushel exclaimed, wide-eyed.
Ingot nodded with a similar look. “Shortly after your… incident nine years ago, Shady here asked me and my boys to tear down what was left of yer old farmhouse. On the first day of the project, we all felt an unnatural sense of… rage lingering every moment we spent on that property. We kept finding fresh dead animals. Crows, cats, even a coyote…. Each of my ponies that handled the remains of the house ended up with burns despite the fact that the fires had long since gone out. And yet the ravens stood on those very ruins without any problems, just… watching us.”
The large stallion wiped his brow. “On the second day, some rubble collapsed and landed on Sledge. Not only was he badly injured, but he was covered head to hoof in burns. After we dug him out, I got to fighting with his brother Mallet, and before I knew it everypony was at each other’s throats. It was like they were fueled by some otherworldly anger, making even ponies I know would never hurt a fly as aggressive as a manticore. And all the while the ravens grew in numbers.
“On the third day, the fighting reached a boiling point, and things got to physical blows. That’s when the ravens got tired of just watching. We didn’t come back on the fourth day. Say what you will, Princess, but there’s something unnatural about that property. It felt like… like that house was tryin’ to keep us away.”
“Curious…” Twilight mused, scratching her chin before turning to her companion. “What do you think, Razz?”
Raspberry didn’t answer. The unicorn merely sat in place, staring ahead with a blank expression.
“Uh, Razz? You okay?”
Twilight touched a hoof to Raspberry’s shoulder, but the mare made no response. She just stared ahead with dead eyes.
“I’m sure being here isn’t easy for her,” Shady said, giving the unicorn a concerned look, “and you both must be tired from the trip.”
Twilight glanced out the window to see Celestia’s sun start its descent below the horizon. “We have been traveling all day. I guess Razz and I should head to the inn.”
At that, Shady stood up with a warm smile on his face. “Nonsense! I have a perfectly good guest bedroom with a pair of perfectly functional beds. I’m sure the wife would love the chance to cook for princesses, and you haven’t lived until you’ve tried her stew!”
Twilight smiled. “Well, as long as you insist, we’d be happy to accept your hospitality.”
As they unpacked and ate dinner with Shady Tourmaline and his wife Gem Tourmaline, Twilight felt cautiously optimistic. Although Bushel and Ingot didn’t stay for dinner, they left the Tourmaline residence giving sincere apologies to Raspberry. Twilight’s optimism started slipping away when the mare herself made no indication she even heard them. After dinner, Raspberry went through the motions of going to bed like a mindless automaton. She hadn’t said a single word all night.
A loud crack like thunder caused Bushel Barrel to awake with a start. Strange, there wasn’t a thunderstorm scheduled tonight, the old mare thought. A glance out the bedroom window confirmed that it was indeed still the middle of the night. She rolled over and looked at her husband. Frothy Cider slept like a log beside her, snoring loudly. Damn lout can sleep through anything.
Bushel lay there for a while, listening to her husband’s snores. She didn’t hear any more loud cracks, and decided whatever she heard had just been her imagination. What she heard when she rolled over and tried to get back to sleep was most definitely real.
BARK! BARK! BARK!
The ferocious barking of Matilda and the other dogs echoed across the farm from the barn. Soon after, the rest of the animals joined in, creating a cacophony of noise. Something was clearly spooking them.
Oh no… Bushel thought as she sat up in bed. That could only mean one thing.
Bushel turned and gave the stallion beside her a few shakes. “Frothy! Wake up! The timberwolves are back again!”
Cider only mumbled and turned over, resuming his snoring. Bushel gave her husband a few more fruitless shakes before giving up with a frown.
BARKBARKBARKBARK! BARK! BARK! BARK! BARK!
Groaning, Bushel Barrel got out of bed, muttering, “If you want something done right…”
In a few moments, Bushel was out the door with a lantern in her mouth and a couple of pots from the kitchen across her back, ready to bang them together should she meet any of the wooden lupines. The wind was strangely strong tonight, and the tall bare trees swayed rhythmically, the light of her lantern casting dancing shadows in the darkness. There was an unusually strong chill out for a spring night. When she finally reached the barn, most of the animals had stopped their bleating, but the dogs were still barking frantically.
“Hey! Matilda, stop!” Bushel approached the rottweiler. She was baring her teeth as she stared into the dark abyss of the woods, unrelenting in her barking. “Shh… shh…”
Bushel stroked the dog’s head, and after a few moments she began to calm at her master’s touch. Soon, Matilda’s barking stopped altogether and the other dogs followed suit, the low howl of the wind was the only sound that remained. Bushel took a step out of the barn and looked around for any signs of the wood creatures, but the only timber she saw was attached to the trees.
“Really, Matilda?” Bushel turned back to look at the dog, annoyed to have pulled herself out of bed for nothing.
But when she looked at the rottweiler, the dog’s lips were curled back into a snarl, and she was growling in Bushel’s general direction. When Bushel reached forward, Matilda yelped and retreated back into the barn, tail between her legs. She had never seen the dog act like this before. Bushel suddenly heard a twig snap in the woods, and she whirled around and raised her lantern, but it was nought but a candle in the ocean of darkness.
“Hello?” Bushel called out. A sense of dread started to well up inside her as the temperature noticeably dropped. The mare shivered, and decided she no longer wanted to be out here. She needed to get back to the house, back into her warm bed with her husband as quickly as she could.
But when Bushel turned to head back up the dark path, her heart stopped as she spotted a figure a few paces away. It wasn’t a timberwolf, and Bushel felt a little more at ease when she realized it was a pony. The figure was stumbling along the path through her farm aimlessly. Great. Another drunk’s wandered onto our property.
Furrowing her brow, Bushel approached the pony (it was a stallion, she realized) to give him a piece of her mind.
“Excuse me,” she said as she drew nearer to the pony. “This is private property. You need to leave now.”
The pony made no reply, continuing to shamble along the path, facing away from her. Bushel felt even colder as she got closer to the stranger, and there was something else. She felt an aura of pure… negativity begin to permeate the very ground she stood on. Then she heard the breathing. The pony in front of her was taking labored breaths, phlegmy and uneven. Bushel then noticed he had no coat. It had been completely replaced with charred black skin tainted with blood.
“Sir? Are you okay?” Bushel gasped, drawing within an arm’s length of the pony. “Do you need a doctor?”
The pony stopped. The sickly labored breathing suddenly gave way to silence. Slowly, the figure turned to face Bushel, and the mare’s own breathing became labored as she was consumed in cold terror. The light from her lantern revealed a hideously deformed face. The pony had no lips, and looked at her with milky white eyes that melted away into a pair of dark pits as it lunged at her.
Bushel Barrel didn’t even have a chance to scream.
Twilight Sparkle’s eyes shot open and she looked around the dark bedroom. A loud noise had roughly jarred her from her slumber. Raspberry was fast asleep in the bed beside hers with Heliodor asleep on one of the bedposts. The rest of the house was quiet. So what woke me up?
Twilight’s question was answered by a sudden loud crack and a deep rumble that shook the whole house, causing her to jump. Just a thunderstorm, nothing more. But when Twilight put her head back down on the pillow, it occurred to her that despite how close the thunder sounded, she didn’t see any lightning.
The wind outside then began to pick up, making the house moan around her. Unable to shake the feeling that something wasn’t right, Twilight climbed out of bed and went towards the window as it rattled in its frame. She pushed it open and peered out into the dark night. The sky was black and starless, even Luna’s moon refusing to show itself. Twilight looked out over the tops of the swaying bare trees. She felt the disturbance before she saw it.
A fair distance down the road partially obscured by the bare trees was a section of the night that seemed… darker than the rest. The darkness stretched up into the sky like a pillar, twisting and contorting into itself. The wind seemed to be blowing all of the trees toward it, as if the anomaly was trying to pull them in.
“Hmm….” Twilight scratched her chin nervously. She didn’t like jumping to conclusions, but Twilight knew exactly what the pillar of dark energy looked like. Looking back into the bedroom, Raspberry lay still in her bed, her chest rising and falling under the covers. Twilight had half a mind to wake her, but ultimately decided against it. Based on her behavior this evening, she needs rest.
Still, she couldn’t just ignore whatever was going on, so against her better judgement, Twilight creeped out the bedroom door and headed down the stairs. Before long she was briskly trotting along the dirt path through the night in the direction of the dark pillar. The tall, jagged trees seemed to close in around her the further from Tourmaline’s house she ventured.
Despite Twilight’s extensive experience traveling through the Everfree Forest, a primal sense of fear began to make its way through her as she pressed on. At least with the Everfree, she could always hear the various sounds of wildlife around her. Now, though? Nothing. There were no crickets chirping, no owls hooting, and no frogs croaking. Even the strongly blowing wind made no noise, as none of the trees had leaves. It was as if all the life had been sucked out of her surroundings.
As Twilight drew nearer to the dark pillar in the sky, the night grew colder. It was the first days of April, and the nights were getting warmer throughout Equestria. But as Twilight pressed on, the cold only increased. Shivering, Twilight let out a breath, then stopped as a second breath joined hers. It had been barely audible, but Twilight thought she had heard someone take a strained, gasping breath.
“Hello?” She looked around through the trees and saw nopony, but couldn’t shake this uneasy feeling. The hairs on her neck stood on end, and she could feel somepony’s eyes on her. As the cold dread pressed harder, Twilight’s breaths became quicker, and she realized she could see them take form in front of her face. Twilight broke into a gallop, running in the direction of the pillar as fast as she could. She didn’t feel the cold or the wind anymore.
As she arrived at her destination, Twilight realized it was because the cold and the wind were both gone, as was the pillar of dark energy. Instead, all she saw was a run down farmstead. The nearby barn was rotted and collapsed, having fed the termites for years. A water tower stood in the distance, missing its top. But what drew Twilight’s attention was the farmhouse. The building was a broken down mess; the windows were shattered and the door hung limply off one hinge. But most important of all, the wood that comprised it was black, looking like a log that had been in the fire for too long.
Twilight let out a gasp and backed away as she realized just what farm she was looking at. Not wanting to remain a moment longer, Twilight closed her eyes and fired up her horn. With a pop of magic, Twilight opened her eyes again and took a relieved breath when she found herself standing back in the guest bedroom with Raspberry. The unicorn was still asleep in her bed, unaware of Twilight’s little incursion.
The alicorn made to climb into her own bed to get some well earned sleep, but stopped when she heard a soft whimper. She looked over at Raspberry to find her shifting under the sheets murmuring, “Nuh… no…”
Concerned, Twilight moved over to Raspberry’s bed as the unicorn kept turning and muttering. “N-no… please… it hurts…”
“Razz?”
The unicorn was breathing heavily, whimpering as her spasms increased. “Please stop…. It hurts… p-please…”
“Razz!”
Twilight shook her friend and Raspberry jolted awake, her eyes wide as she screamed, “No, go away!” Trembling and covered in sweat, Raspberry sat there panting for breath.
Twilight was at her side in an instant. “Hey, you okay?”
The bedraggled mare shook her head, pushing the mop-wet hair out of her eyes.
Twilight wrapped her friend in one of her wings and held her close. “It’s okay. you’re safe.”
The two held each other for a little while, the occasional sniffle from Raspberry the only sound. The distressed mare then looked around frantically, a confused look on her face.
“Wait, where are we?”
Twilight gave her a queer look. “Uh, our guest bedroom in Shady Tourmaline’s house?”
“What? Why aren’t we at the inn?”
“Shady invited us to stay over. Razz, you were there!”
“I don’t remember…” Raspberry’s look grew distant as her voice started to tremble. “The last thing I remember, we were talking to Shady, Bushel, and Ingot!”
Twilight’s puzzled look gave way to a concerned frown. “And… you don’t remember eating dinner? Talking with Shady and his wife? Anything after?”
Raspberry just shook her head. Twilight wasn’t sure what it all could possibly mean, and did her best not to show just how worried she was.
“You should get some sleep,” Twilight said. “Tomorrow we’ll visit your old farm, pay our respects, and then we’ll get out of here.”
The next morning was just like the previous night; there was no light in the sky. The sun was hiding behind a thick layer of gray clouds. Raspberry Beryl awoke to the sound of somepony knocking on the bedroom door.
“Excuse me, yer highnesses?” It was Gem Tourmaline. “There’s a pony in armor here to see ya.”
“Be right down,” Raspberry answered, rubbing her eyes. Despite getting a full night of sleep, Raspberry felt beat. It didn’t help that her dreams had been plagued by very… visceral images from her past. The fact that she had somehow lost an entire evening left her feeling unsettled as well.
“You can stay there, Razz,” Twilight said, yawning as she moved past her bed to the door. “I’ll see what’s up.”
“Okay, I’ll be right with you,” Raspberry said as Twilight left the room. Getting out of her bed and attaching her leg brace, Raspberry went over to the bedpost Heliodor stood on. The green phoenix had his head tucked under his wing as he stood sleeping. “Rise and shine, you lazy bum.”
Raspberry smiled as the bird spread his wings and yawned before hopping onto her horn. Together the pair went to the window, and Raspberry opened it for Heliodor to fly out, beginning his morning hunt. Raspberry watched him soar over the dreary treeline for a bit before going to the vanity to give her mane a quick brush.
Upon descending the stairs, Raspberry saw Shady Tourmaline sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee and his corncob pipe. The old stallion nodded at her. “Mornin’.”
Raspberry tried to smile and return the greeting, but it felt forced. The fact was she did remember Shady from when she used to live here. He visited her father on the farm a few times, but never once spoke to her. He feared her, just like everypony else had. As Shady turned away and took a sip of his coffee, it was plain to see that he still feared her now. He did invite her and Twilight to stay over, true enough, but he just wanted to please them. Wanted to stay on Raspberry’s good side.
With awkward haste, Raspberry pushed through the kitchen past Shady and entered the front hall. There, she saw Twilight and Captain Skyracer standing together, sharing hushed words.
“What’s going on, Skyracer?” Raspberry asked as approached them.
Skyracer turned to her with a grim expression. “Last night, all of the perimeter patrols failed to check in. I sent out a search party to find them, but I haven’t heard anything from them yet. We’re down fifteen guards - that’s half of the contingent we brought!”
“Last night, I saw what looked like a vortex of dark magic. It might have something to do with this,” Twilight said, unable to keep the worry from her tone. “It was coming from your old farm, Razz.”
“What? Why didn’t you tell me about this?!” Raspberry exclaimed.
Twilight chewed her lip. “Well... you seemed to have other things on your mind last night.”
Which is why a dark magic problem would have been a great distraction, Raspberry thought.
“It was long gone when you woke up anyway,” Twilight continued.
“Do either of you have an idea of what we’re dealing with?” Skyracer asked.
“It’s too early to form any concrete theories yet,” Twilight answered. “But, I have a hunch.”
“Well, whatever this is, we need to get to the bottom of it. Quietly,” Shady said, stepping forward. Raspberry hadn’t even heard him enter the room. “I don’t need to tell you how superstitious the ponies in this town are, Princess. The last thing I want is to incite a panic.”
A low murmur of dozens of voices began to rise outside, getting louder. Furrowing his big bushy brow, Shady went to the window and parted the blinds with a hoof.
“Well, if that don’t beat all…” he grumbled.
Twilight and Raspberry moved to the window beside him and peered out. A crowd of a few dozen ponies was making its way up the path to the house, muttering nervously and animatedly amongst themselves. Raspberry’s heart started to quicken. She was no expert on the social nuances of ponies, but she could sense a lot of anger mixed in with the fear.
“Shady!” a stallion among them called out. “Shady, you in there?”
“Stay here, Razz,” Twilight stated, before nodding at Skyracer.
Together, the princess and the captain stepped out the door onto the front porch as the procession of ponies arrived. The villagers looked at the pair of unfamiliar ponies with trepidation clear on their faces. Raspberry watched from the window, taking deep breaths.
“Where’s Shady?” one of the stallions outside asked, clearly unsettled. “Where is he???”
“I’m here!” Shady shouted as he stepped out onto the porch. The gathered villagers seemed to give a collective sigh of relief. “I’m here, now what’s all this about?”
“Is she in there?” another pony asked. A mare this time.
“What if she is?”
“Bring her out here so she can answer for what she’s done!”
Raspberry swallowed as she thought one of them glanced her way.
“Now look,” Shady said. “Princess Raspberry explained the entire thing, and what happened with her father Torchwood was unfortunate, but an accident.”
“I don’t care about that!” a stallion at the front of the crowd said. He was lime green with a cutie mark depicting a frothy mug of cider. “My wife is gone!”
“Define ‘gone’, Frothy.”
“I woke up this morning and she wasn’t there. She wasn’t in the house, she wasn’t out runnin’ the store, she’s just gone!”
“And she’s not the only one!” a muscular dark orange mare at the front spoke up, and Raspberry realized she was one of the ponies who ambushed them when they first arrived: Javelin if her memory was correct. “Sureshot and Wallbreaker are gone too!”
“And so’s my son!” another mare shouted.
“And my brother!”
“And my grandma!”
The entire crowd erupted with the names of ponies who were missing. Raspberry watched with a growing sense of unease. If every single pony in this crowd was missing at least one friend or relative, that meant nearly half the town was gone!
“And y’all think the Princess is responsible?” Shady asked.
A chorus of affirmatives and a few demands for justice were the crowd’s answer.
“But that’s impossible!” Twilight chimed in. “We were with Razz all night, there’s no way she could have abducted half the ponies in town!”
“And how do we know you’re not just covering for your fellow princess?” Javelin asked, glaring daggers at Twilight.
“Because I’d know if anypony was up to anything while under my roof!” Shady stated in a tone that brooked no argument. “I told y’all before: Torchwood’s death was an accident. Princess Raspberry never hurt anypony, and sure as Tartarus doesn’t have reason to start now. The Princesses and I are going to do everything in our power to get to the bottom of this. In the meantime, I suggest y’all return to your homes and stay there.”
Under the heavy glares of the mayor, the princess and her guard captain, the group of villagers reluctantly turned away, grumbling. Raspberry gave a sigh of relief as the three of them returned inside.
“Thanks for sticking up for me, guys,” she said.
Twilight simply gave Raspberry a smile, wordlessly telling her that it was no trouble. Her smile then vanished as she thought about the full implications of what they’d learned in the recent confrontation.
“If ya have any thoughts on what’s happenin’, Princess, now would be the time to share them,” Shady said.
“I think we have a warlock on our hooves,” Twilight stated with the utmost seriousness. “Somepony other than Razz is using dark magic to abduct ponies at an alarming rate. Present company excluded, most dark magic users kidnap ponies for one reason: dark rituals. We need to act fast.”
“How do you want to us to deal with this, Princess?” Skyracer asked.
Despite the fact that both she and Twilight shared a title, Raspberry could easily guess which one of them he was addressing.
“Take the rest of your contingent and do a sweep of the whole village. Razz and I will join you shortly,” the seniormost princess answered. “And send a courier out to Ponyville. Tell him to bring the other Element Bearers as quickly as he can, and to tell Spike to notify Princess Celestia at once.”
Skyracer gave a sharp salute before leaving to carry out his orders.
“Um, no offense, Twi,” Raspberry said once he was gone. “But I don’t see the point in summoning your friends if we no longer have the actual Elements themselves.” Raspberry remembered what Twilight had told her about the Elements of Harmony being returned to the tree they were born from.
“I know,” Twilight answered. “But I think it’ll still be good to have them around. I have a bad feeling about this.”
Raspberry couldn’t agree more.
“Now, I’m going to make a quick breakfast and then we’ll start looking for those missing ponies.” With that, Twilight turned and made for the kitchen, leaving Raspberry with Shady. The unicorn went to follow her friend, but the old earth pony stopped her.
“Just a second, Princess,” he said, looking at her with sad eyes. “Look, I feel like I owe you an apology.”
Raspberry tilted her head. “For what? You’ve been nothing but helpful and accommodating ever since Twilight and I arrived.”
“For the role I played that night nine years ago,” Shady said, scratching the bald spot on his head, barely meeting her eyes. “I may not have been a part of the mob that burned down yer home that day, but I did my share of rilin’ ‘em up to do just that. I believed you were the spawn of evil jus’ like the rest of us did then.”
“You weren’t entirely wrong, y’know,” Raspberry said with a sad smile.
“All the same,” Shady finally managed to look her directly in the eyes. “I’ve had nine years to think about everything that’s happened in this town since you were born, and you know what I decided? You were just a foal. A foal with some mighty terrifyin’ powers, mind you, but still a foal. You didn’t deserve none of what happened to you. And yes, I think everypony knew what yer pa was doin’ behind closed doors, but to my shame, we all turned a blind eye to it. None of us wanted anythin’ to do with you or yer dark powers.”
Shady’s wrinkled old eyes started to glisten. “If I could turn back the clock, I think I’d do it all different. I’d have taken you away from Torchwood as soon as I knew what he was doin’. I might even have….” Shady sniffed. “Well… no sense dwellin’ on what could have been.”
Raspberry stepped closer to the old earth pony and - placing a hoof on his shoulder - gave him a smile. “It’s okay, Shady. I’m in a good place now.”
“If ya ever need anything, Princess….”
“Please, call me Razz.”
Lonesome Dove’s main square made even Ponyville look like a sprawling metropolis. A single decaying clay statue of a stallion - Shady’s ancestor and the town’s founder, according to Raspberry - stood surrounded by various small structures. Twilight spotted an inn along with some kind of church - dedicated either to Celestia or Faust based on the white stone - among the smaller sheds and stores. The whole town seemed to be coated in a fine layer of dust and dirt, and the surrounding trees were bare and lifeless. Despite the fact that they were a few days into April and the snow had all melted, the whole place retained the browns and oranges of autumn. It was as if Lonesome Dove was so isolated, news of spring’s arrival had yet to reach it.
Skyracer and what remained of his contingent searched every inch of the outlying farms while Twilight and Raspberry helped Shady Tourmaline search the town proper. Shady had Javelin recruit a couple of ponies to the town militia to help with the search, yet despite the mayor’s suggestion, Iron Ingot wasn’t among them. Twilight could guess why. It was for the same reason that Javelin seemed to keep close to them throughout the search, and in particular kept her eyes on Raspberry Beryl. The princess in question seemed to notice the same thing, but paid it no mind. There seemed to be more plaguing her than accusational stares.
“How are you holding up?” Twilight asked when the two of them stopped to take a break for lunch, sitting on the front porch of Barrel’s Mercantile.
Raspberry swallowed the bite she’d taken from her sandwich. “You mean apart from investigating a potential other dark magic user in my hometown where I’m suspect number one?” Raspberry sighed. “I’m managing. But….” She looked off to the side and started scanning the sky with a worried look. “Heelee hasn’t come back since I let him out for his morning flight.”
It didn’t take a genius to guess what Raspberry was thinking. “We’ll find him, okay? The others too.”
At the sound of approaching hoofsteps, the pair of princesses turned to see Shady approach with a pair of his militia ponies in tow. Javelin and Frothy Cider wasted no time in leveling wary glares Raspberry’s way.
“We’ve finished our search of the central part of town,” Shady reported. “Didn’t find hide nor hair of anypony.”
Twilight took a breath. “Okay, what’s left?”
“There’s one more place we haven’t checked out: the abandoned mill by the river.”
It sounded like as good a place as any for a warlock to keep dozens of abducted ponies. “Okay. If you find anything, have somepony come get us at once.”
Shady gave a single curt nod before leaving with Javelin and Frothy in tow. The former seemed reluctant to let Raspberry out of her sight. The mare in question fidgeted her forelegs before looking up at Twilight.
“What if they don’t find anything there?” Raspberry asked after Shady and his militia were gone.
“I suppose we’ll check on Captain Skyracer’s progress with the farms.”
Raspberry gave a shuddering sigh. “I just want this to be over…”
Twilight looked at her seriously. “We could always go with my initial plan.”
The other mare just looked back at her, eyes wide and afraid. “I don’t know…”
“It’s where I saw that column of dark energy last night,” Twilight argued. “Even if the missing ponies aren’t there, we’re sure to find something that’ll put us on the right track.”
“We could always wait,” Raspberry said quietly. “Captain Skyracer sent out his fastest pegasus this morning. With any luck, our friends will all be here by the evening, and reinforcements from Canterlot will arrive shortly after!”
Despite how much it pained her to give her already frazzled friend more stress, Twilight persisted. “If whoever’s behind these disappearances really is using dark magic, you know that time is of the essence. If we wait to investigate the potential source of these events, it could have dire consequences for everyone who’s gone missing!”
Raspberry closed her eyes. She seemed to be trying very hard to take steady breaths. “Okay,” she finally said, opening her eyes and looking at Twilight. “Let’s go to my old farm.”
Twilight and Raspberry stood at the edge of the old property, looking in. It was unchanged from the way Twilight had seen it at night. The barn was still old and collapsing. The fields were still overgrown with weeds and dead stalks of corn and wheat. And the farmhouse was still a burned husk, black and empty. As she looked on, Twilight felt the same feelings of indescribable… wrongness that she had when she was here the other night. She could only imagine how her companion was feeling.
“You okay, Razz?” she asked.
Raspberry had a blank look in her eyes as she stared ahead. “Yeah, it’s just… the last time I was here, I… I-I killed my…”
As Raspberry started to shake, Twilight touched her shoulder. “It’s okay, don’t think about it. Just… keep moving forward.”
Twilight put a wing over her friend, and together the two of them took a step onto the farm. Then another. They almost made it to the front porch of the farmhouse before Raspberry froze.
“I-I can’t… I can’t do it!”
Twilight sighed. “It’s okay, I understand. You can wait outside if you want to.”
“You sure?” Raspberry turned to Twilight, and the alicorn could see the fear in her eyes. She seemed conflicted between not wanting to let Twilight go in her stead to needing not to go herself.
“I’m sure,” Twilight stated, putting an end to that conflict. “You stay out here and look around. I’ll check out the house.”
Raspberry nodded and started wandering in the general direction of the cornfields. The farm was unnaturally quiet as Twilight approached the house. The only sound she heard was the caw of the ravens perched on the roof, still and watchful. The front door snapped off of its remaining hinge and crashed to the floor when Twilight tried to push it open. Despite the fact that the roof was mostly gone, the house was dark.
The first thing Twilight noticed was the smell. There was no word to describe it other than rotting. Twilight heard the buzzing wings of many flies as she turned a corner and entered what had once been the kitchen. She nearly gagged when she saw something slumped in the corner, but composed herself when she saw that it wasn’t a pony. It was a dog - a rottweiler - and it didn’t look to have died very long ago. Twilight remembered Iron Ingot’s tale about this place. Why does it seem like things only come here to die?
And yet, Twilight didn’t think the carrion was the source of the smell. The rotting scent was all-pervasive, permeating the entire structure. At the sound of more buzzing, Twilight looked around and saw that flies covered the walls. It seemed as if the house itself was one big corpse. Of course, that would imply the house had been alive at some point.
Something crunched under Twilight’s hoof when she stepped into the next room. She looked down and saw a pair of ponies looking back up at her from within a small picture frame. A large, burly earth pony stallion was lovingly holding an earth pony mare with a bulge in her belly. A web of cracks on the glass frame distorted their faces, making their smiles seem twisted and unnatural.
The house creaked and groaned with every step Twilight took, as if protesting her presence. Without thinking, Twilight stepped on a piece of burned rubble that lay in the middle of the hall. A sudden painful cold shot up her hoof, and Twilight winced, pulling it away. Inspecting the appendage, Twilight let out a quiet gasp when she noticed a small burn had been left on the bottom.
Her breaths started to come more quickly as she looked around at the fly-covered walls. The hairs on her neck stood as she felt eyes on her just like she had going through the forest the other night. Every fiber of her instincts were telling her to get out of there.
Twilight’s ears flicked as she suddenly heard a noise. Thump. She looked around, but didn’t see any movement but the flies on the walls. Twilight was about to dismiss it as her imagination when she heard the noise again.
Thump. Thump-thump. Thump.
It was a faint, hollow sound like somepony knocking against something solid. Like a door. Twilight sprang into action when she realized it could be one of the abducted ponies.
“Hello!? Where are you? Are you hurt?” Twilight called out, but only received more thumps as a reply. Whoever it was wasn’t able to answer. Twilight tried to trace the source of the noise. It seemed to be coming from below the floor.
“Just hold on! I’m coming!” Twilight dashed out of the house and ran around to the side until she found the hatch leading down to the cellar.
An onslaught of cold assaulted Twilight’s senses as she opened the hatch and looked down into the darkness. Summoning a light spell, Twilight descended the stairs into the cold dark cellar. It was strange, her spell was usually enough to light her way through any dark place. This time, the light from her horn didn’t get far before being consumed by the darkness. Even so, Twilight was able to make out several stacks of wooden crates and barrels, filled with produce that had long since rotted away. There was some furniture too. An overturned chair, a table propped up against the wall, and a grandfather clock that had long since stopped announcing the progression of time.
THUMP-THUMP. THUMP. THUMP. The noise grew louder as Twilight crept further into the cellar, priming a defensive spell just in case. The cold grew greater as Twilight pressed on, and she could see her breath crystallize in front of her.
Twilight stopped dead in her tracks when she reached the end of the cellar and found the source of the noise. A large wooden dresser-cabinet sat against the far wall, jolting with every THUMP.
“Don’t be alarmed,” Twilight said gently as she approached the cabinet. “I’m gonna get you out of here.”
But when Twilight unlatched the cabinet and opened it, she didn’t find a pony inside. Instead, the whole cellar was engulfed in a soft orange light as a plume of flames erupted from within the dresser. Gasping, Twilight took a step backward as the cabinet went up. She tried to turn and get out of there, but suddenly the whole cellar was burning, the flames all around her. Yet somehow, Twilight was still so cold.
The wooden supports on the ceiling creaked, and Twilight had just enough time to jump back towards the cabinet before they collapsed, landing in a burning heap where she previously stood. On the second day, some rubble collapsed and landed on Sledge. Iron Ingot’s words echoed in her mind. Eyes wide and breathing heavy, Twilight looked around, shaking as she desperately searched for a way out through the flames. The house was alive, and it was trying to kill her.
Then Twilight heard the sound behind her. It was like somepony trying to breathe through dead, shriveled lungs. Twilight turned around just in time for a pair of dark, charred hooves to reach out of the cabinet and grab her. Then Twilight saw the mangled face of the creature within. Despite being no stranger to dark horrors, Twilight was unable to keep in the scream.
I should be the one going in there, Raspberry thought miserably as she trudged through her old cornfields. The stalks were overgrown and lifeless. The few persimmon trees they had were bare and hunched over, as if too drained of energy to continue standing. Yet despite the bleak atmosphere of her once marginally profitable farm, it was still better than being near that house.
Whatever part of Raspberry’s mind told her she should be checking the house with Twilight was drowned out by the part that demanded she get as far away from it as physically possible. There was something fundamentally wrong about being back here that went far beyond the mere instinct to stay away from an unsettling location. The burnt out husk that had been her home had bore silent witness to her actions nine years ago, and Raspberry was unable to shake the feeling it was watching her now, eagerly waiting for her to kill again.
Raspberry suddenly tripped and stumbled, apparently too lost in her thoughts to notice the small stone in her path. Something was wrong though. As Raspberry righted herself, she realized she’d felt a tiny surge of dark magic flow up her body as she tripped. Turning to investigate the stone she tripped on, Raspberry gasped when she saw it wasn’t a stone at all. A tiny, translucent dark mineral had parted the earth, identical to the kind she could make with her magic. Looking all around her, Raspberry saw more black crystals going in and out of the ground like the roots of a tree.
She followed the crystals through a patch of more dead corn stalks, and came out in a bald spot where she found a much larger specimen. The black crystal was bigger than a large cart, its sharpened points reaching out in every direction. Eyes steadily growing bigger, Raspberry saw the tops of more large dark crystals over the top of the stalks around her. What was more, she thought she saw a shape inside the crystal itself.
A terrified scream echoed across the field, halting Raspberry’s thoughts in their tracks. Her heart raced as she realized where the scream came from.
“Twilight…” Raspberry gasped, galloping at full speed back toward the house. She didn’t notice the mare following her, nor did she see when the mare saw the black crystals and took off towards the town.
Raspberry arrived in front of the decayed old house and stopped. “Twilight?” She waited a few seconds before calling out again. “Twilight?! Twilight, are you in there?!”
The cold pit of fear grew in her gut as she continued to call out and was answered only by the caws of ravens. The birds had been spooked from their perches on the half-collapsed roof, and were now circling hungrily overhead. Death was in the air, and they could sense it.
I have to go in, Raspberry realized when Twilight’s answer never came. The house was looking down at her. The door was completely off its hinges, leaving the entryway unobstructed. It was about as inviting as a dragon’s maw. Raspberry tried to focus on Twilight’s words to her earlier. Just keep moving forward. Raspberry took a breath and forced herself to step into her foalhood home.
The buzzing of flies and the smell of death assaulted her immediately when she came into the kitchen. The room was familiar despite how much of it was destroyed, and all at once memories began flooding back. Raspberry remembered sneaking in to find food whenever her father didn’t feed her. She remembered when her father came home drunk at night and passed out in the corner. The same one the dead dog now lay in. Keep moving forward.
Raspberry kept her eyes down as she went into the next room. Both of her parents looked up at her from behind cracked glass, mocking her with twisted smiles. She killed her mother coming into the world, and she killed her father going into it on her own. Keep moving forward.
Before she even knew it, Raspberry was standing in the hall outside the bedrooms. The place where it all happened. For a moment she thought she saw him standing where he had been that night, but another look confirmed it was only a half burned chair. Still jumping at shadows, Razz.
All at once, memories of that fateful night came flooding back. The fire, the angry townsponies outside, her drunken father staggering angrily toward her.
I’m the master of the house, I’m the one calling the shots of what we do!
Not anymore…
Next, Raspberry was charging toward him horn first. Despite all he had done, Raspberry wanted nothing more than to change this moment. But she could only watch helplessly as her hooves brought her closer to her target. She felt herself embed her horn into his chest. Felt the blood seep down onto her hair and face. She remembered staying to watch as the fire consumed her father, turning his coat a charred black and melting the features from his face. But something was wrong. Raspberry wasn’t looking back on this moment of her own accord. Something was playing these memories out for her, as if showing her a film reel she couldn’t look away from.
The next thing she knew, Raspberry was standing in front of the mob of ponies, all of them wielding torches, pitchforks, axes, and a variety of farming tools now turned weapons. All of them were glaring hatefully as they shouted at her.
“Fiend!”
“Monster!”
A mare at the head of the crowd gave her a knowing glare. “Murderer!”
Raspberry backed against the remains of her house. “N-no, it’s… I’m not…” she found herself unable to say anything in her defense. Because they’re right.
“Where’s my wife and daughters?”
“What have you done with my brothers?”
Javelin kept her glare steady. “You murdered Wallbreaker and Sureshot!”
Something was wrong. There were less villagers than there had been that night nine years ago, and despite how dark it was, the sun was still up. Only it wasn’t a big brilliant ball of light in the sky, but a tiny pinprick no bigger than another star. This wasn’t just some memory. This was happening right now.
“Let’s hang her!” a stallion shouted.
“No, burn the demon!” a mare answered.
Raspberry shrunk down as the mob closed in around her. She searched frantically for Shady Tourmaline or one of the guards, but there was not a friendly face in the crowd. “P-please... I didn’t. I swear I didn’t…”
“ENOUGH!”
Raspberry and the entire mob looked down the road to see Shady Tourmaline standing there with Iron Ingot, a look of calm fury on his face. Raspberry heard flapping wings, and in moments Skyracer and five other ponies in guard barding landed beside her, taking defensive positions around her. But there was only six of them versus a mob of dozens. Where’s the rest of his contingent?
“Shady, the Monster has killed the other princess!” Javelin implored, turning to the weathered old stallion. “I heard her scream!”
“Princess Raspberry did no such thing,” Shady stated.
“I saw dark crystals in the fields that weren’t there before. Who else do we know that can make them? All of this started the moment she arrived, it has to be her!”
“Stand down, Javelin!”
“No!” Javelin turned back to look at Raspberry. “I will see the Monster destroyed whether you approve or not, mayor!”
Skyracer and the ponies under his command spread their wings and drew short blades. “If anypony here moves to attack the princess, my ponies and I will have no choice but to use deadly force to protect her.”
This caused the angry, bloodthirsty looks on the villagers to give way to trepidation.
“They can’t stop all of us,” Javelin proclaimed, but already the wind was going out of her sails.
“No, but we’ll kill most of you before you reach the princess,” Skyracer countered. “And the ones we don’t kill today will be placed under arrest by our reinforcements from Canterlot tomorrow on charges of assisting in regicide, the penalty for which is life imprisonment.”
The mob that had been so vocally calling out for blood before now muttered nervously amongst each other as they put some distance between themselves and Skyracer’s guards.
“All of you return to your homes. Now,” Shady stated firmly. Slowly, the crowd began to disperse like leaves in the wind. “And lock your homes up tightly tonight!”
Javelin lingered a moment longer to stride right up to Shady and narrow her eyes. “She is responsible for this, Mayor,” she said before turning to leave. “How many more of us must vanish before you realize that?”
Raspberry waited for Javelin to leave before turning to Shady and Skyracer. “Thanks again you guys. I’m starting to feel more like a storybook princess than a real one at this point.”
“Just doing my job, Highness,” Skyracer said, giving his princess an easy smile as he sheathed his blade along with the five other ponies with him.
“Where’s the rest of your contingent, Skyracer?”
The captain’s easy smile disappeared in an instant, and Raspberry figured his troops suffered a similar fate.
“I see….”
“Where’s Princess Twilight?” Skyracer asked.
Remembering the terrified scream she’d heard, Raspberry could only guess. Apparently, the change on her face was noticeable.
“I see…”
The pair was silent for a while after; Raspberry worried about her friend and Skyracer upset that he’d failed to protect her.
“So, where exactly have you been all afternoon, Princess?” Shady asked. “You had us all worried for a while.”
Raspberry slowly turned to face him. “All afternoon? What time is it now?”
Shady pulled a brass pocket watch out of his shirt pocket and looked at it. “Jus’ after six.”
“What?!” Raspberry exclaimed. “But… that would mean I lost five hours!” Just like the other night; when ponies first started disappearing. “Oh Celestia… what if they’re right?”
Shady and the others looked at her inquisitively as she continued. “What if I really am doing this? What if I’m losing control of my powers just like I did nine years ago?”
Raspberry’s breaths started coming faster. I killed my mom. I killed my dad. What if I killed the others too? What if I killed Twilight? What if I killed Heelee?! As the tears started to cloud her vision, Raspberry felt a hoof under her chin, and her glistening eyes met Shady’s.
“Listen to me, Razz. None of this is yer fault, okay? Ponies have been disappearin’ even when you were with us and perfectly lucid. Besides…”
Shady paused. “Even if it’s true, and yer magic is somehow responsible, they’re wrong: You are not a monster.”
The old stallion rubbed her shoulder until Raspberry was able to muster a nod and an appreciative smile.
“Now, I believe Javelin mentioned somethin’ about seein’ black crystals around?” Shady said after he was sure Raspberry would be okay.
The princess perked up when she remembered. “Oh, right! I found a bunch of black crystals growing in my pa’s old cornfields before I heard Twilight scream.”
Skyracer nodded and addressed what remained of his troops. “Private Sunny Side, you and the others search the fields for those crystals and anything else. And stay alert.”
An armored mare with a white coat saluted before heading back towards the farm with her fellows.
“I think I need to rest,” Raspberry sighed.
“C’mon. We can head back to my place,” said Shady, turning to head down the worn dirt road. Raspberry followed.
Raspberry tossed and turned in her bed, but try as she might, sleep would not come. It was not possible when all that occurred that night still plagued her mind. First and foremost was that neither their Ponyville friends nor reinforcements from Canterlot had arrived. They should have been here by now. Assuming the courier reached them…. The second issue had come up when she had been having a quiet dinner with Skyracer and Shady (his wife was unaccounted for). They were just cleaning up when Private Sunny Side returned… alone.
She and the other soldiers had searched the old fields for hours and found nothing. No missing ponies, no black crystals. Just dust. But something had found them. The guardsmare never saw what attacked them, only that her fellows started vanishing one at a time until she was the only one left. Both she and Skyracer stood guard just downstairs now, watchful of the hostile villagers… and whatever else may appear. They would remain that way until the morning.
Raspberry had no intention of staying another day longer. She would leave for Ponyville at first light. She felt guilt eat away at the core of her stomach at the thought of leaving Twilight, Heelee and all those that had gone missing, but she would return the next day. This time she would bring an entire legion of soldiers from Canterlot along with the rest of Twilight’s friends. Perhaps even Celestia would get involved once she heard Twilight was in danger.
As Raspberry pulled the covers tighter around herself, she heard a faint rumble in the distance; probably thunder. But no lightning. Raspberry’s eyes shot open when she realized Twilight mentioned something similar the other night before she saw…. Raspberry got out of bed and raced to the window as more cracks shook the night. She looked out over the leafless trees and saw a great column of darkness rise into the sky. Then she saw where it was coming from.
“I’m going back to my farm,” Raspberry stated when she came down the stairs.
Skyracer and Sunny Side looked up at her in surprise. “Princess?”
“I’m going to get to the bottom of this. Tonight.”
Raspberry Beryl raced down the old worn road towards her farm, the two guards and Shady Tourmaline right behind her. Though the powerful winds seemed to be pulling everything towards the dark pillar in the sky, Raspberry felt as though some force was trying to push her back. She got colder the closer she got to the farmstead, but she pushed on against it all.
The barn and farmhouse looked exactly as they had earlier in the evening, but the land itself was completely alien. Pillars of dark crystal dotted the landscape, seeming to claw at the sky as the column of dark energy towered over them all.
“Well if that don’ beat all…” Shady mumbled as the pair of guards cautiously stepped forward to investigate the translucent black minerals.
“Sweet Celestia…” Sunny Side gasped, taking a step back from the crystal column.
“What?” But then Raspberry saw it; a dark shape within the crystal. A pony.
“It’s Bushel Barrel…” Shady gasped.
Raspberry looked up at the dark obelisk and saw that each crystal that comprised it held a pony, their expressions frozen in various states of pure terror. The group of still moving ponies spread out, looking at the other pillars in the field. If there was a chance Princess Twilight was among the trapped ponies, they had to find her.
“Shit…” Skyracer swore. Raspberry turned to look at the crystal he was staring at, wondering if he found Twilight. Instead, she saw a pegasus stallion in the barding of the Royal Guard. “This is the courier I sent to Ponyville,” Skyracer turned to face Raspberry with a cold, grim expression.
“No one’s coming to help us.”
It was then that Raspberry saw something that made her heart stop. Within a dark crystal a few feet away was a figure too small to be a pony. It had an avian shape frozen mid-flight, looking at something below with a terrified expression. Raspberry recognized it immediately.
“HEELEE!” Raspberry exclaimed with a gasp before something suddenly hit her in the side, knocking the wind out of her as she fell to the ground.
“Princess!” she heard Skyracer shout as she looked up and found the muscular frame of Javelin standing over her, holding a spear to her throat. A dozen other villagers had appeared wielding knives and axes, quickly forming a wall between the pair of guards and their leader.
“I knew you were the one castin’ dark spells down here,” Javelin venomously intoned as a sharp crack from the dark column boomed overhead, “and now, here’s the proof!”
Skyracer and Sunny Side immediately drew their weapons, but the dozen ponies cutting them off from their princess held their ground this time.
“Drop your weapons and step away from the princess!” Skyracer warned.
“No. This madness must end!”
Raspberry wanted to say something in her defense, but she knew it was pointless. The mare standing over her had her mind made up long ago, and wasn’t looking to change it any time soon.
“Javelin!” Shady called out from Skyracer’s side. “Don’t. Do this. Yer a good pony. Yes, yer a hardass, and can be a harridelle when ya want to be, but that’s because yer a damn fine militia captain; one of the best this town has ever had! Believe me, I don’t give that title lightly. You’d never kill an innocent pony, Javelin,” Shady gave her a long, hard stare. “So put down that spear, and earn yer title.”
Javelin returned Shady’s stare for one second. Then another. Finally, her hard exterior started to soften. “I always believed in you, Shady. No matter what the situation, you always seemed to know what was right. But you finally got one thing wrong,” Javelin then looked back down at the unicorn at the end of her spear. “This is not an innocent pony!”
The big mare then raised her spear over her head and shoved it down through Raspberry’s throat. All Tartarus broke out after that. Skyracer hit the nearest villager with his hardest buck, and Sunny Side followed suit. The rest of the townsponies rushed them and all the while Shady shouted fruitlessly for them to stop. All the while the burned house stood to the side, and Raspberry thought it almost looked pleased as the guards and the villagers fought in front of it. She could do nothing but watch alongside it as she lay on her side, gasping for breath as she bled out.
Raspberry tasted her own blood in her mouth, and every breath hurt more than the last. It felt like she was drowning, and hot lava was filling her lungs. When she looked up, she saw Heliodor frozen within the dark crystal. He was looking back down at her, his face a reflection of her own terror. It can’t end like this, Raspberry thought tearfully, as the pain started to fade away. It was then that she remembered: this wasn’t the first time her throat had been torn open.
The guards and villagers stopped their brawl as Raspberry forced herself to her hooves, blood pouring out of her neck and forming dark crystals where it hit the ground. Raspberry opened her mouth and uttered a tortured cry, muffled by the gurgling blood in her airways. Her horn was then covered in the dark purple ichor indicative of her magic, and suddenly everypony present was floating through the air, flailing helplessly. Her dark magic had never flowed so easily before. It was as if the very air around Raspberry was powering her up. Every tool and weapon became covered in the purple ichor and melted away. The entire group was then tossed aside save for one. Javelin was levitated upright in front of Raspberry, suddenly too terrified to even struggle as she looked helplessly at the princess. Raspberry’s eyes met her own, seeping a purple mist.
Javelin’s chest was exposed, and Raspberry felt herself lower her head, her horn lining up with the earth pony mare’s heart. The burned house watched from its position up the hill, silently egging her on. She hurt you, Raspberry. Just like he did. You know what to do.
You’ve done it before.
“NOOO!” Raspberry cried as Javelin was unceremoniously dropped to the ground. The unicorn’s breaths were coming heavily, but it wasn’t because of her injury. Her fast healing had already solved that problem.
The tables now turned, Javelin lay on the ground as Raspberry stood over her. The once proud earth pony mare could only stare up at the unicorn she only moments ago antagonized, her face a blank portrait of fear.
“I didn’t have to come back here, you know,” Raspberry said, staring down at Javelin like she was an ant. “There is nothing for me here but bad memories. I didn’t have to come back here, but I did. I wanted to do something to right the wrongs of the past, but you all still believe my father’s drunken ramblings about me from a decade ago! You think I’m the one responsible for all of this? Fine. Believe whatever you want, but the thing you need to realize is I’m also the only one that can fix this!” Raspberry turned her back on the stunned mare. “So you can either help me do that, or stay the hell out of my way!”
“Uh, Princess…?” Skyracer started as Raspberry strode past.
“I’m fine,” Raspberry said without breaking her gait. “Now let’s get to the bottom of this.”
As Raspberry began mulling over possible explanations and solutions to the dark crystals holding the townsfolk, Skyracer and Sunny Side spared a cautionary glance at Javelin. She had returned to her hooves, but did not look inclined to cause any more trouble, merely standing closer to the other similarly cowed villagers. Stepping close to the princess, the pair of guards decided they were no longer a threat. Attempting to detain over half a dozen ponies with just two was not practical, and besides, they had bigger fish to fry.
“Maybe… no, no. A cloaking spell of that size would be infeasible…” Raspberry paced back and forth in front of one of the macabre black spires. She tried to call forth every conversation she had with Twilight about conventional magic, along with her own knowledge of dark magic.
“Excuse me, Princess?” Sunny Side stepped closer. “The big… dark… energy column… thing is gone.”
Raspberry looked up at the night sky to see that it was indeed empty and silent once again. She looked back down at the obsidian field around them.
“But we can still see the crystals….” Whenever the strange things happening on her farm went away, they’d take all evidence of their existence with them. So why are the crystals still here? Raspberry turned to Skyracer. “Captain, fly up and survey the field. Tell me if anything looks… off.”
The guard captain proceeded to do just that. Raspberry had a theory of what was going on, and if she was right, the situation just got a lot worse. In short order, Skyracer returned.
“Everything around this farm looks… muted. Like it isn’t there. I’m not really sure how to describe it,” Skyracer explained with grim countenance.
“It’s like we’re surrounded by a veil of impenetrable fog.”
“I knew it,” Raspberry stated. “The dark force doing all of this… it’s fueled by anger and fear. I could feel it growing when we were all fighting just now. It’s got us under some kind of… dark, dimensional field; a limbo between a forcefield and a pocket dimension.”
Anxious murmuring emerged from the present villagers while Shady looked at Raspberry with a worried frown. “You mean to say we’re trapped? Can you get us out?”
“Trust me, my old farm here is the last place I want to be stuck in,” Raspberry said, kneading her hooves in the dirt as she thought. “Our best bet is to find the source. If we can take out whatever is causing all of this, we might not only be able to get out of here, but save everypony who’s trapped in the crystals as well.”
Skyracer gave a determined nod. “Okay, how do we find the source?”
“Like I said, we’re stuck in a sort of limbo between a domed shield and a pocket dimension. Whatever’s causing this has to be a level below us, at the center of the pocket dimension,” Raspberry rubbed her chin. It was possible to reach further into the dimensional field, but they wouldn’t be able to access it from anywhere. “The trick is finding the dark epicenter. It’s the largest concentration of dark magic and acts as a critical support pillar for the pocket dimension. Remove it, and the rest of the structure falls.”
“Okay, you’re the dark magic expert here.”
Raspberry looked around, trying to get a feel for the dark magic in the air around her. It was difficult; the dark magic seemed to be coming from everywhere at once with no specific origin. Then she looked at the charred remains of the farmhouse. It was strange, there didn’t appear to be anymore dark magic there than there was anywhere else, but there seemed to be something… more to it. The structure almost seemed to have a will of its own. Raspberry could sense it working against her when she had entered after Twilight. It was where her own fear had been strongest, and just so; it had been the site of her greatest sin.
Summoning up more bubbling dark magic, Raspberry drew a single round dark crystal from the air in front of her and allowed it to grow. Soon, Raspberry had a decently sized wrecking ball in front of her. Then she put it to work.
“Princess, what are you doing?” Shady exclaimed as she levitated her dark crystal and smashed it through the side of the old building.
Raspberry just ignored him and brought her crystal around to smash through the house again. She pressed her assault, relentlessly and mercilessly beating the place that had been her home. The place that had been her prison. Walls crumbled, scattering the ravens that loomed there. Old, familiar furniture turned to dust, and still Raspberry kept beating. Finally, the house grew tired of the assault and fought back. Fire erupted from the cursed structure’s darkest depths, and an arcane explosion rocked reality itself.
All of a sudden, Raspberry wasn’t standing out in her field anymore. She was surrounded by fire in a familiar hallway. Only, everything was twisted and far more sinister than before. Pictures of barely remembered family members were stretched and contorted on the walls, their hollow eyes weeping blood. The cabinets and tables were jagged and unnatural. Even the hallway itself was wrong, vast and cavernous. As wide as a hoofball field, its length stretched further than Raspberry could see. The ceiling disappeared into the darkness, and all around her everything burned.
Then she saw Twilight. The alicorn stood in place, her hooves anchored to the floor by foreign dark crystals. The mare was run ragged and she struggled to keep her swollen eyes open. She looked to have been fighting a battle for hours. Then Raspberry saw that was exactly what she was doing.
Twilight’s enemy stood as tall as a house. Where she and Raspberry were like mice in the oversized version of her bedroom hallway, the creature before them was a perfect fit. It was as grotesque as its twisted surroundings. It resembled a giant pony - a stallion - but its jerking movements were unnatural and wrong. Its coat had been burned away, its skin as black and bloody as the burning walls around them. It had no eyes, no nose, and its lips seemed to have been melted away, leaving a perpetually grimacing abomination.
A familiar purple mist seeped out of the holes where its eyes should have been as it launched a variety of dark spells at Twilight. The alicorn was doing her best to deflect the attacks, but she was unable to stop all of them. The next black projectile Twilight failed to stop found its mark, consuming another part of her in black crystal.
“HEY!” Raspberry shouted, launching a dark magic attack of her own at the creature. “Leave her alone!”
Raspberry’s attack barely fazed her enemy, but it had its desired effect: the creature turned away from Twilight and looked at her. Though it had no eyes, it could see her, and when it did, a curious look crossed its disfigured face. Raspberry’s heart turned cold. The creature regarded her with angry recognition. It was then that Raspberry saw the gaping wound on its chest right where its heart would have been, and all at once she realized exactly what - or who - she was facing.
“No…” Raspberry croaked. “I-it can’t be…”
The towering figure strode purposefully toward her. You’re just jumping at shadows, Raspberry tried to tell herself, but the creature’s identity was unmistakable. The ground shook, each of the titan’s hooffalls causing miniature earthquakes as it moved slowly and menacingly toward her. Raspberry could almost hear his voice again.
You whiny brat, it seemed to say. Worthless foal.
Monster.
Suddenly Raspberry was a filly again, trembling helplessly as her father bore down on her. He remembers. Raspberry opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. He remembers what I did to him. She heard Twilight’s voice as she tried to call out to her from where she was held in place, but it barely registered in Raspberry’s mind. She tried to run, tried to move, but it was like she too was held down by dark crystals. All she could do was whimper and sob as the giant burned stallion raised a single hoof and brought it down on her.
Twilight wasn’t sure how long it had been before Raspberry appeared. Hours? Days? Weeks? Time seemed as elusive as illumination in this netherrealm. She managed to fight the great demon off after the first time it pulled her into the hellish subspace, but it always came back. Twilight used every trick in the books and then some to try and defeat it, but the monster was undeterred.
After a while, Twilight began to feel herself wear down. Her vision was blurring as it became harder and harder to stand. Every spell she cast was more difficult than the last, and soon the demon’s attacks started finding their mark. Bit by bit, Twilight’s body was becoming consumed in black crystal.
When Raspberry Beryl finally appeared, Twilight held onto the hope that she wasn’t hallucinating, and that she was finally saved. Her heart sank when Raspberry got one good look at the towering demon and froze. Twilight had a hunch about who she was facing for a while now, but seeing the look of terror and pure despair on Raspberry’s face when the demon turned toward her all but confirmed it. Twilight tried to call out to Raspberry, telling her to move as the demon approached, but the traumatized mare didn’t hear. Not even when the giant abomination brought its hoof down right on top of her.
It’s over. Twilight thought, despairing. There was no way she could last much longer against this thing. But when the creature removed its hoof and turned back toward her, Twilight saw a very different mare’s broken body beneath the shadow of the abomination’s scorched hoof. Raspberry’s namesake coat had given way to a darker maroon color, her lilac and cornflower mane and tail were now black and crimson. The baby blue crystal heart on her flank was now a dark, muted pink and the bright red, green, and purple gems radiating outward were replaced with a dark purple no different than the color of the formations holding Twilight’s hooves down.
Then Raspberry rose to her hooves, her crushed and broken bones cracking grotesquely as they set themselves into place. Familiar wisps of purple smoke flowed from her eyes while Twilight’s own widened. Oh no. Razz then opened her mouth and let out an unnatural scream.
“AAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEE!!!!!” The sound was like a banshee’s cry, loud and distorted as it seemed to permeate the very air around them. Oddly enough, the towering demon mirrored the action, opening its own twisted mouth wide and letting out a sound like a hoarse, twisted gurgle. The two dark entities then met in a vicious clash of dark spells.
Twilight wasted no time in turning her attention to the dark crystals anchoring her legs to the ground and using a spell to tear them apart. She turned to the escalating fight in time to see Raspberry’s magic break apart an especially large black crystal that had been hurled at her before summoning tendrils of dark magic from the ground to wrap around the burned stallion.
The demon struggled in a way that seemed almost panicked as Raspberry let out another scream of agony before charging up another dark spell. Why does it seem as scared of her as she is of it? Twilight wondered, but she didn’t have time to linger on the question before Raspberry formed a long spear of dark crystal and sent it flying straight at the demon. The spear impaled the giant stallion and sent it flying back into the depths of the oversized hallway.
Twilight ran to her friend. “Razz, are you okay...?”
Raspberry met the question with another loud ethereal cry as her horn was consumed in more of the dark purple ichor. Twilight had just enough time to move out of the way of Raspberry’s attack, leaving a formation of black crystals where she’d been standing previously.
“Razz, what are you doing?! It’s me, Twilight!”
Like before, the frantic dark mare didn’t hear her. She just kept screaming as she called forth another dark spell. Twilight wasn’t sure what she did until she heard the faint sound of many ponies screaming. It was then that Twilight became acutely aware of the space outside of the pocket dimension they currently resided in. Closing her eyes, Twilight quickly fired up a spell that allowed her to see through the dimensional veil to the world outside.
Several villagers and a couple of their own guards were standing in a field of dark crystals as more began stabbing their way up through the earth all around them. The demon they had just been facing was no longer the biggest threat to everypony else.
“Razz, you have to stop this! You’re going to get somepony killed!” Twilight grunted as she fired up a spell. Her vision swam - she didn’t think she had another in her after this. A series of glowing magenta runes appeared at Raspberry’s hooves, and the crazed dark unicorn’s magic began draining out of her.
With a cry, Raspberry reared up and stomped her hooves down, creating a dark magical shockwave that dispersed Twilight’s runes in an instant. Raspberry immediately followed up with another dark spell.
Whatever she launched at Twilight next was invisible to the naked eye, but the purple alicorn knew exactly what it was when she felt something dark and intangible begin to claw at the back of her mind like a mental itch. Thinking fast, Twilight conjured up a basic spell Celestia had taught her designed to shield her mind from mental attacks. The darkness trying to hook into the back of her mind immediately bounced off, but Twilight could still sense it hovering around her. She braced herself for another mental attack, but it never came.
Instead, Twilight heard massive hoofsteps and a great, gurgling roar. She turned around just in time to see the huge burned stallion in the distance, charging down the cavernous hallway toward them. Wreathed in flames, the burned stallion was no longer slowly lumbering, but instead running in a full sprint. Just like before, Twilight could sense terror within it identical to Raspberry’s.
Wait, that’s it! Just then, Twilight formed a whole new hunch about the true nature of their enemy. She realized she could definitely sense magic linking the burned stallion to Raspberry’s mind.
“Razz! This is all in your head! You need to calm down!” Twilight yelled, but it was no more successful than the other times she tried it. “Please, you need to remember…”
Twilight paused. Remember. Of course! Turning away from the demon bearing down on them, Twilight tackled Raspberry to the ground as she charged up another dark spell. The feral unicorn flailed and snarled in Twilight’s grasp, and the alicorn grimaced as her friend started biting her forelegs. Twilight ignored it all as she put everything she had into one last spell.
Just like she had when her friends had been corrupted by Discord, Twilight called up every good memory she had with Raspberry Beryl and touched her glowing horn to her friend’s forehead. All at once, images began to flow through both mares’ minds.
Twilight and Raspberry were back in Golden Oaks, talking about Heliodor and bonding over the magic of learning. They were in the courtroom next, with Raspberry looking exactly like she did now. She had Blueblood at her mercy, ready to start down the same dark path as her ancestor. Embracing the reality that she was just as bad as Sombra. Then the small filly came in.
Razz did not expect the sudden weight of Apple Bloom having launched herself at the unicorn, latching on with a big hug. “But you’re not him.”
More images went by at an ever increasing pace. Finding Heliodor for the first time in that Diamond Dog cave. Cashmere and Ascot first taking her in, and later adopting her as their own daughter. Twilight and her friends rallying around Raspberry after the disaster that was her trial. The dinner party they all had after her fate had been decided. The grateful praise given by everypony affected by the werewolf curse after she solved it. Being held in her parents’ embrace; her true parents back at the Traveler’s Retreat.
Memories of the laughter she shared with the ponies that had become her friends and family brought Raspberry back to her senses. Soon she found herself looking up at Twilight, who smiled as she held her. No words were spoken. None needed to be. One look at Twilight told Raspberry everything would be okay.
The hideous scarred visage of her father was now looming over them, but this time Raspberry didn’t back down. She retained full control of her mental faculties even as she summoned a series of dark spires around the burned stallion, trapping it. The monster raged against its prison, but the crystal bars held.
“I’m not afraid of you anymore!” Raspberry proclaimed, staring down the pupiless, burned face of her father. “Because you’re wrong! I’m not worthless, and I’m not a monster! I have friends that care for me. I have a family that loves me, and that I love in return. That’s more than you’ve ever had!
“You’re the worthless one! You’re the monster!” Raspberry began to turn away. “You’re not even real. My sire died years ago. You’re just a shadow that looks like him. And I’m not jumping at shadows anymore!”
With that, Raspberry summoned dark energy into her horn, but instead of casting another dark spell, she used it to sever the one already in place. The energy linking her to the demon was broken, and with one final distorted moan, the burned stallion split in two before each half of its body disintegrated into tiny dark particles, and just like that, it was nothing.
Before either mare knew it, their twisted surroundings started to tremble and give way. Before long, the oversized burning house disappeared and they were back outside in the middle of Raspberry’s old farmland. But it was different now; the dark, depressing atmosphere was gone. The rubble of her old house was just that: rubble. Crickets were chirping and frogs were croaking. The moon and the stars were out once again, and the night in Lonesome Dove was more alive than it ever had been.
At the sound of voices, Raspberry and Twilight turned around to see the fields were no longer littered with dark crystal formations. Instead, the villagers and guardsponies who had been trapped were climbing to their hooves. Each of them was confused and disoriented. Many looked around fearfully as a low murmur filled the air. A few of the younger ones were crying. But they were all okay.
Raspberry wasted no time in throwing up her disguise spell, hiding the demonic look of her ancestor once again. A part of her wondered whether the townsponies should see what she really looked like, but she quickly realized that after all they’d just been through, seeing her true form was the last thing they needed. Besides, a warm and familiar sight quickly gained her full attention.
“Heelee!” Raspberry exclaimed gleefully as the green phoenix practically dive bombed her with eager affection.
“Princess?”
The pair sharing that title looked to see Shady Tourmaline beside his wife. They both looked rather shaken, but it was clear they were glad everything seemed to be okay. “Either of ya mind explainin’ jus’ what the Sam Hill happened?”
“We took care of the threat, Mayor,” Raspberry reported. “Lonesome Dove is safe now.”
Skyracer and his restored contingent of guards moved to protect the princesses immediately, but the gesture was unnecessary now. “And the culprit?” he asked.
Raspberry looked down steadily. “It was me.”
The entire crowd of villagers around them grew dead silent. Even Javelin didn’t seem to have anything to say. Raspberry wondered if the militia captain had actually started to believe her after they came to a head earlier. Too bad she turned out to be right after all.
“Not necessarily,” Twilight said, and just like that she had the attention of everypony present. She took a few moments to figure out how best to explain what she’d figured out before continuing. “Let me start from the beginning. Nine years ago, Razz killed her father the night her house was burned down by the angry mob out for her blood.” The guilty looks crossing the villagers’ faces indicated plainly just who among them had been there that night. “While it may have been justifiable self-defense, an act like that inevitably leaves its mark. Razz was understandably shaken; wracked with guilt, shame, anger, and just about everything you can feel when you take the life of somepony so close to you.”
“And let’s not forget I’d also just figured out I was related to Sombra,” Raspberry added, idly touching her disguised horn.
“Right. And all of those strong, personal negative emotions conspired with the freshly used dark magic in the air and manifested into a curse. One that was centered around Razz’s own farmhouse: where her guilt and rage were at their strongest.” Seeing the growing looks of distrust in the villagers around them, Twilight decided to cut to straight to her main point. “However, curses created by accident are rarely dangerous. A magical curse either needs the pony that created it to keep giving it more juice, or it can sustain itself through… other means.
“Because this curse was born of anger and fear, it would have been able to feed on those very things to keep itself going all of these years,” Twilight gave the entire crowd of ponies a firm look. “After the night she ran away, I imagine all of you had your fair share of hate and distrust toward Raspberry, didn’t you?”
The distrustful looks sent Raspberry’s way began to dissipate, and the villagers instead began sharing uncertain looks among themselves.
“So… all of this was really our fault?” Javelin asked at barely a whisper.
“In a way, yes. The curse would never have become as powerful as it did if it hadn’t been feeding on your negative emotions for all the years it lay dormant.”
“Wait a minute,” Iron Ingot piped up. “If this curse was really hangin’ about the farm all this time, why did it only start getting aggressive now?”
Twilight rubbed her chin as she gave it some thought. “The curse’s attacks did coincide with our arrival. My guess is that it might have been reacting to the presence of its creator.”
Raspberry’s ears folded back. Whatever way she looked at it, she was the one responsible for all that had happened. “I shouldn’t have come back….”
“On the contrary: I think the ponies here should be thanking you!” When Twilight’s statement was met with uncomprehending looks, she elaborated to the crowd: “If Raspberry didn’t come back, the curse would have continued to absorb more negative energy until it overloaded. Given how powerful it was when we faced it, I think it’s a safe bet that if we waited much longer to defeat the curse, Lonesome Dove would be a crater the size of Ghastly Gorge!”
The villagers looked amongst themselves, their murmurs filling the air. This time though, their mutterings didn’t hold undertones of fear, but that of something Raspberry couldn’t quite place. The townsponies all seemed… awed.
“I… I don’t know what to say…” Javelin said, seeming to speak for the rest of the village.
“Well, this is all mighty fascinatin’, but I think we’re all due for a little shut-eye,” Shady said, turning to make his way back to his house with his wife. But not before pausing to make one final comment to the ponies of his village. “I think we all have lots to think about. Not every day you learn the pony you shunned for a near decade saved everypony’s life!”
Raspberry Beryl didn’t think she’d ever get used to attending parties in her honor. She never knew what to say when other ponies talked to her, and all of the attention made her profusely uncomfortable. Even so, she wouldn’t have traded the current festivities for anything in Equestria.
The sun was out the next morning and the sky was blue for the first time since the two princesses had arrived. Raspberry and Twilight had been planning on taking their leave after breakfast, but Shady asked them to stay a bit longer before bringing them both to the center of town. Waiting for them was all of the town’s ponies, who had thrown together a hasty celebration in the middle of the square. There was music, dancing, and most importantly, cider. The music was comprised mostly of rustic violins, and the dancing seemed to be a few centuries old, but everypony was enjoying themselves, chief among them Raspberry.
Of course, Twilight had wasted no time in joining in the dancing, surprising everypony present who had been expecting something more… princess-like. Indeed, Twilight’s uncoordinated flailing combined with her face scrunched up in concentration was met with much good-natured laughter. Even Skyracer and his guards allowed themselves to cut loose a little, and many of the stallions in armor ended up receiving lots of attention from young mares who’d likely never seen a pony in proper barding before.
Considering her own skills on the dance floor were sub-par, Raspberry occupied her time another way.
“...And once I had her cornered, I used my dark magic to turn her into a feeble old wolf, unable to hurt anypony ever again!”
The foals sitting around her “ooh’d” and “ah’d” as Raspberry recounted her final battle with Fair Vista, complemented by Heliodor pantomiming the actions in the story in the most overzealous manner possible. It started with one small colt asking her about her leg brace, and before she knew it, she had a full audience of fillies, colts, and even a few grown ponies. There was plenty of embellishing of course, and she left out some of the details that weren’t appropriate for young foals, but they enjoyed it all the same.
“Hey, Princess! Come over here a sec, will ya?”
Raspberry looked over to see Iron Ingot waving her over. After excusing herself from her captive audience, Raspberry started making her way across the square toward Iron. She passed Shady Tourmaline, who raised the mug of cider he was drinking in her direction, and Javelin, who gave her a curt nod. The militia captain still wasn't on the best of terms with her, but Javelin had managed to muster an apology for the way she acted.
“It’s okay, I’m sorry I enjoyed scaring you so badly!” Raspberry had replied with a jovial smile.
The usually grim faced mare had actually managed a smile at that before remembering she wanted to look tough and stoic as befitting her station. Raspberry forced her mind back to the present as she reached Iron Ingot. The stallion pulled out a piece of paper and unfurled it.
“So… what exactly am I looking at here?” Raspberry asked. The image on the paper looked kind of like a blueprint for a large building of some sort.
“This is yer castle, Princess!” Iron exclaimed proudly. “Mah boys and I are gonna tear down yer old farm and build this in its place. We figured you’d need a proper place to stay, ya know... if'n ya ever wanted to come back….”
“I appreciate the gesture, Mr. Ingot. I really do. But….” Raspberry took the paper in her hooves and gently rolled it back up. “I’d like to keep the past as is.” Seeing the look of disappointment begin to cross the stallion’s face, Raspberry continued. “If you really want to build something for me, how about a park? This town could use a little something to spruce up the scenery, ya know?”
“Not a bad idea, Princess. We can call it Beryl Park.”
Raspberry didn’t entirely feel comfortable with that, and was about to say as such when another idea came to mind. Although she’d never known her birth mother, it seemed a fitting way to finally and completely make peace with her past. “Actually, how about we call it Glass Ruby Park?”
Understanding immediately, Iron Ingot nodded. “I can do that.”
It seemed almost too soon when Twilight and Skyracer approached Raspberry informing her it was time for them to go. It was funny: the last time she was in Lonesome Dove, Raspberry couldn’t put enough distance between her and the town. Now, she found herself wanting to stay just a little longer as she said goodbye to all of the new friends she’d made.
“You’ll always be welcome here, Razz,” Shady said as she prepared to leave. “Don’ be a stranger!”
Before long, Raspberry was walking along the dirt road through the trees with Twilight at her side. The formerly bare branches were now dotted with tiny green buds. Life was finally returning to them. Heliodor flew overhead, casually circling the two mares. Skyracer and his guard contingent were just ahead, giving the two princesses a buffer as requested… but not too much of a buffer.
“I never expected to say this, but I’m glad we came here,” Raspberry said as she and Twilight walked along. “Cashmere was right: I really needed this.”
“We still have a few stops to make on our goodwill tour,” Twilight said. “Where do you want to go next?”
“I’m not sure,” Raspberry said, looking wistfully ahead. “For now, let's just keep moving forward.”
Twilight smiled. “All things considered, this visit could have gone a lot worse! It got pretty dicey when you went nuts and started attacking everything with a pulse.”
“That reminds me, you really need to work on defending against dark magic attacks,” Raspberry pointed out. “For instance, you blocked my, ahem, ‘mental alteration’ spell all wrong. I’m not even sure what happened to it!”
“Was I really that bad?” Twilight asked. The look Raspberry gave her in return was not encouraging.
“Hey, maybe we can spar sometime? It’d be a great way for me to learn more about conventional magic, and if it improves your dark magic defense even a little bit, I’d say our next fight with a dark curse will go much more smoothly.”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Gimme a break, Razz! Like I said, things could have gone much worse. Honestly? I’m just thankful nopony was hurt…”
With another hoarse cough, Twilight Sparkle closed the book she’d just finished. The teenaged girl sat upright in her bed and idly tapped her fingers on the cover. The biography of Baldassare di Cavalcanti was certainly an interesting read, though Twilight wasn’t sure she bought the part about a black unicorn coming through his mirror to teach him dark magic.
As she put the old book away, Twilight felt the familiar itching sensation like a dozen fire ants crawling all over her body. She looked down at the various tiny red dots on her arms with no shortage of disdain. Figures I get the chickenpox the week I was supposed to go to LA with Sunny and Tavi.
Sighing and letting out another phlegmy cough, Twilight reached over to her bedside table where her calamine lotion was kept. She was disappointed when she picked up the bottle and found it much lighter than it should have been. Picking up her phone, she texted her mother and asked her to pick up another bottle on her way home from work. Unfortunately, that meant Twilight had to deal with the unbearable itch until she got back. She wanted nothing more than to furiously scratch the damned spots until they came off, but she remembered her mother’s warning not to scratch them. It’s just an itch, Twily. You can beat a little itch!
Lying down and rolling over, Twilight decided to try and sleep as the fire ants crawled all over her skin. Just an itch. Think about something else.
Twilight found her thoughts straying back to the book she’d just read. It was definitely interesting, but there was something unsettling about the events described by the old, worn words. That Cavalcanti was truly a deranged guy, with the fate of his first wife just one of many mysteries left unsolved to this day. Inexplicably, those dark thoughts brought about an itch of their own. It felt like the fire ants had somehow made their way into her head, and were trying to burrow their way into the back of her brain.
Grunting, Twilight suddenly felt the need to rub the back of her head furiously, but she was unable to reach the strange sensation in her mind. Rolling over, Twilight forced herself to relax. There’s nothing to worry about, Twily, the girl thought as sleep started to come, and with it dreams. It’s just an itch…
Author's Note
I'd like to thank Shinzakura and BlueBastard for bringing me on to the 7DSJ Project.
Shin handed me the outline to this story, citing Japanese horror films (In particular Ghosts of Kagami Pond) as the primary inspiration. I ran with that as far as I could, but ultimately decided to draw more from Stephen King simply because that's what I know. I hope this has been as enjoyable to read as it has been to write!
